Suprising Family
by kam6670
Summary: Gibbs' trip to Lowe's brings him a suprise. He'd decided to stop trying to find another "one", but meeting Maggie Sullivan changed his mind. Until he found out who her half brother is. Can Gibbs change his famous rules to find happiness again?
1. Chapter 1

Maggie pulled into the Lowe's parking lot. She smiled at the familiar blue letters up on the sign. Most women loved to go into malls and go shopping, which Maggie did like as well, but Lowe's was top on her list of places to shop. She was always finding something to fix or improve around her house. When she moved to the Washington DC area from Boston, her criteria in a new house was simple; it had to be a fixer upper. Besides that, as long as it had a large garage or barn type structure, she'd be happy. That and being close to her son when he was transferred to Quantico were why she was pulling in to a parking spot next to a grey Ford 250 pickup at Lowe's. She was beginning one of many projects in her new house.

First on her list was to get fixtures for her master bathroom shower. And just like the Lowe's back in Boston, finding someone to help her when she needed help was next to impossible. She looked up and down the aisle; but the only other person in the aisle was another customer looking at copper piping. Sighing, Maggie walked over towards the Moen showerhead that she needed and tried to reach it. Even standing on her tip toes, she couldn't reach it.

"Friggin figures." She muttered to herself cursing her 5'3" height not helping her to reach the shelf. She moved her feet to step up on the lower shelf to give her a little more height to reach what she wanted. Her fingers just touched the edge of the box and she stretched to get a better hold on the corner of the box.

Gibbs looked up from the length of copper pipe he was holding and watched as the woman at the end of the aisle stretched up to reach the box on the shelf. He noticed her out of the corner of his eye when she walked past him. He rarely missed a red headed woman when she walked by. His weakness and curse he'd tell himself. Her red hair was pulled back into a pony tail which swung down over her shoulder as she reached up for the designer showerhead. He smirked when he thought of people who paid for all the fancy add-ons in bathroom. You just need a working shower head in a normal tub, not a whirlpool bath or fancy jets to get the job done. He looked over at her again while her back was turned to him. She was on the shorter side, he guessed she was shorter than Ziva, and her hair was the color red that couldn't be found in a salon, similar to what Shannon's had been. The woman had on a pair of work boots that had paint splatters on them, just as the well-worn jeans she was wearing that hugged her backside in just the right way. Realizing where his brain was leading his traitorous body, Gibbs looked back down at the pipe in his hand. He smirked; Ducky would have a field day with this scenario. But after things hadn't worked out with Samantha Ryan, he'd decided that enough was enough. He'd had his moment in the sun with love and 3 failed divorces were enough to tell him he wasn't meant to find anyone else.

"Just. A. Little. More." Maggie closed her eyes and reached as high as she could, but she lost her hold on the part of the shelf and lost her balance.

Gibbs heard the woman gasp and looked up just as she was losing her balance. He dropped the copper pipe with a clang and rushed over to grab the falling woman. He grabbed her under the arms just as she began to fall.

"You okay?" he asked as he turned her around to make sure she hadn't hurt herself.

Maggie looked up at her rescuer. She felt her cheeks turning red with embarrassment about falling, but now they were turning a deeper red as she looked up into the most amazing blue eyes she'd ever seen. When she didn't answer right away, the man's eyes widen a little and Maggie shook her head.

"You aren't okay?" he asked again.

Maggie shook her head again. "No, I'm fine." She covered. "I just feel stupid."

The man with the amazing eyes gave her a half smile that made her blush even harder.

"They do have people that can help you reach things." He told her.

Maggie smiled back at him. "But they never seem to be around."

"Nope, they don't. Guess it's a good thing I was though."

Maggie realized that the man was still holding on to one of her arms and looked down at his hand.

Gibbs realized he was still holding on to the woman's arm and let go.

"Do you need me to get that for you?" Gibbs asked seeing that the woman hadn't managed to get the shower head she'd wanted.

"Yeah, sure that'd be great." Maggie stepped to move out of the way and stepped right into the man as he moved forward. Her face pressed up quickly into his chest and she noticed that the sweatshirt he had on smelled like sawdust.

They both smiled and stepped back giving each other some room.

Gibbs reached up and grabbed the box that the woman was trying to reach and brought it down to her.

"Here ya go." He smiled. He was caught momentarily by the sea green color of her eyes. He started to hand her the box and then pulled it back when she took it. "I'm Jethro by the way."

Maggie had her hand on the box and gave it a little tug. "Well thank you for saving my…butt Jethro." She smiled at him. "I'm Maggie. Maggie Sullivan."

"Well Maggie Sullivan." Gibbs began "Are you going to need anything else from that shelf."

God that smirk, Maggie said to herself as she turned her head to look back up at the shelf.

"No, I think that was all I needed from there."

Her inner voice was screaming to tell him she needed seventeen different things so that he wouldn't walk away.

"Okay then Maggie Sullivan." Gibbs hoped she'd say she needed him to reach for anything else, any reason to stand here a few more minutes. He'd noticed that when her blush faded she had freckles across the bridge of her nose and she smelled like she had on some kind of floral perfume.

"Thank you again, Jethro…" Maggie tipped her head when she said his name to see if he'd offer up his last name.

He smiled his crooked half smile and turned and went back to the pipe he'd dropped. Maggie watched as he bent over and noticed that the backside was almost as nice as the topside. Why was it men looked so damned good when they went grey? She realized she had been staring longer than she should have when Jethro turned and caught her staring. Quickly she turned around and walked off in the other direction.

Gibbs quirked an eyebrow when he looked up and saw Maggie had been staring at his backside. He repaid the favor by watching hers again as she walked away.

"Really." Maggie chastised herself for getting caught checking the man out. She was 45 years old, not some teenage girl drooling over the high school quarterback. She shook her head to get the images out of her head and proceeded to go pick up her tile order in that department.

Having finished getting the items he needed, Gibbs walked over to the self-check out aisle to pay for his purchases. Normally he hated this aisle, but there was only one cashier and there was a long line there. He pressed the button on the screen and waited for the next instruction. He'd wished there were more cashiers and fewer computers to take care of this. No matter how hard McGee tried to bring him into this century, he'd rather not. Impatiently he tried to move the copper pipe past the scanner to get the price. He muttered a few choice words when the scanner wouldn't pick up the bar code.

"My turn to rescue you?"

Gibbs looked up to see Maggie standing there holding a box of tiles in front of her.

"Please."

Maggie pushed the box of tiles with the shower head resting on top at Gibbs to hold while she took the pipe and turned it in front of the scanner. A tiny chirp emitted from the machine and showed the price on the screen.

"Cash or credit?" she read the screen to him.

"Cash."

Maggie pressed the green button and stepped aside so that Gibbs could pay. She reached for the box and he shook his head. He shifted the box to his hip, reached into his pocket and pulled out the bill he needed and stuck it into the machine which promptly spit it back out. Maggie let out a quiet laugh and took the bill from him.

"Let me." She ran the bill over the side of the counter to flatten it out and inserted it into the slot. The register recognized the money and spit out the change.

"Thanks." Gibbs said as he pocketed the change. He held Maggie's box of tiles out so that she could scan her packages and waited while she completed paying for them.

"I can take them from here." She reached out for them but Gibbs held them out of her reach.

"The least I can do." He said and began walking with her to the double doors. "Where are you parked?"

"Over there, next to the grey pick up."

Maggie watched the smirk appear again.

"Next to me." He told her.

Gibbs put his purchase in the back of his truck and waited for Maggie to open the back of her Jeep Wrangler and noticed the Massachusetts plates.

"Long way from home to pick up some tiles." He commented as he placed the box in the back.

"Just moved here a few weeks ago." Maggie answered as she shut the back of the jeep.

"Work?"

"Yes and no."

"Well which is it? Yes or no?" Gibbs leaned against the back bumper of his truck.

Maggie couldn't help but be intrigued by this man leaning against his truck, arms folded across his chest. She did see that there was no wedding ring or tell tale indentation that he'd just taken one off for a little while.

"My son is a Marine and was just stationed to Quantico. He's here for EOD training."

"Explosives huh?"

Maggie smiled at Gibbs' knowing what EOD was.

"Marine?" she smiled.

"Yes ma'am."

They stood smiling at each other for an awkward moment.

"He a Marine because of his dad?" Gibbs wanted to smack the back of his own head for asking that question.

Maggie shook her head. "No, his dad was a Boston cop."

"Was?"

"Was." Maggie began to answer when his cell phone went off.

"Yup..Gibbs."

Hmm, so that's his last name; Maggie said to herself as she watched him take a small notebook out of his back pocket and a pen to write down some information.

"I'm on my way." Gibbs ended his call and closed his phone. He tore out the sheet of paper he'd been writing on and handed it to Maggie. Scrawled in surprisingly need printing was his name and two phone numbers, one with a C for cell and one for H for home.

Maggie looked up at him questioningly from the paper.

"In case you need help with those tiles." Gibbs smiled.

Maggie reached out and grabbed the notebook and pen and gave him her phone numbers and handed the notepad back to him.

"In case you have any problems at the self check-out again."

They each got into their respective cars with Gibbs leaving first, but not before giving her a slight wave of his hand. Maggie felt the blush creep up her cheeks again. Good God what was wrong with her. She'd just picked up a guy at Lowes…she laughed as she put her car in gear….or had he picked her up?


	2. Chapter 2

Gibbs sat at his desk, the paper with Maggie's phone numbers written on it in his hand. He stared at it for a few minutes and wondered what he should do. She did give him her number. He did give her his numbers. Even the house number. That was a new one for him.

"Something bothering you boss?"

Gibbs looked over at McGee, whose fingers were posed over his keyboard.

"Nope." Gibbs shook his head and looked back down at the paper in his hands.

"That for the case boss?" DiNozzo chirped in from his desk. "Anything I can take care of?"

Gibbs folded the paper and put it back into his jacket pocket. He stood up and walked out of the bullpen to go down and see if Ducky had any news on the murder victim they'd just brought in.

"Take that as a no." Tony watched Gibbs walk over to the elevator. "Anyone else think Gibbs is distracted?"

Ziva looked up from her computer and watched Gibbs step into the elevator. "Looks right as pain to me."

"Rain…its right as rain." Tony corrected Ziva.

She made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "Potato Potahto."

Gibbs stopped the elevator between floors and took the paper out again. He looked down at Maggie's phone numbers written in her neat script. He took out his phone, flipped it open and dialed the home number and then paused before pressing send. After a moment of indecision, he snapped the phone shut and turned the elevator back on. As it descended down to the basement, he reached back and smacked himself on the head. He needed a wakeup call and needed to decide whether to be alone or take a chance again. His head wanted the former but his gut…well his gut was all for the later.

Maggie stood up in the middle of her shower and stretched her back out. As much as she was going to love her new shower when it was done, right now she hated how it was making her body feel. Her lower back had a huge knot in it and her shoulders hurt from carrying the tiles up from the garage. She stepped out of the large walk in area and moved over to the cup of coffee she'd left on the window sill. She took a long sip of the hot bold liquid and closed her eyes as it warmed her body. She'd always loved her coffee extra light with lots of sugar when she was younger. Maggie smiled at the memory of her late husband James and how he would tease her when she'd get "Milk and sugar with a hint of coffee." Eventually over time, Maggie learned to like her coffee black, just like James had. While she'd experiment with different flavors and tastes, James always stuck with plain old black coffee.

Finishing her cup of coffee, Maggie walked down to the kitchen for a fresh cup before she went back to work on the shower. She put her favorite Marine Mom mug under the drip in her Keurig, popped a Pacific Island blend into the top and waited for the machine to key up to brew.

"Woof."

Maggie looked down at her roommate Freckles, her 3 year old Pitt Bull Dalmatian mix. Freckles woofed again as she sat looking up expectantly at Maggie.

"You need to go out?"

Freckles tail wagged faster on the floor and turned her head toward the kitchen door. Maggie reached down and scratched Freckles behind her crooked ear before pressing the brew button on the Keurig.

"Let's go." Maggie walked over to the door and opened it. Freckles bound out the door and into the back yard racing to her corner to find her favorite toy.

After grabbing her freshly brewed cup of coffee, Maggie walked back out onto the porch and sat down on the stairs. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the paper she'd been keeping there since the day before.

_Jethro Gibbs C:555-555-55555 H:555-555-55555_

Maggie had actually picked up the phone once or twice during the day to call and leave a message on his home phone. She figured if he worked during the day she'd leave a message and see what happened next. But each time she did, she never pressed the send button on her phone. She'd felt like a teenage girl with her crushes phone number. Giddy to have it but scared to use it. Kind of like when she and James met in high school. And that is what stopped her this time. Yeah, she'd dated other men in the years since James had died, but none of them gave her the butterflies that she'd felt in her stomach when she dialed the number.

"Okay Freckles." Maggie stood up and called the dog back inside. "I have a shower head to get hooked up or there will be no showering for me."

It was late, well past 8pm and Gibbs still sat at his desk. He wasn't looking forward to take out again tonight alone and if he wanted to eat at all, he'd have to stop for milk for his cereal. He'd used the last up yesterday.

"Boss…you need anything else before I go?" McGee asked as he stood to leave.

"Yeah. A quick favor." Gibbs reached into his pocket and pulled out Maggie's phone numbers. "Can you see if you can find the street address for this number? It's a new number."

"Sure thing Boss." McGee said as Gibbs handed him the number. "I just need to access the data base."

Click Click Click

McGee typed in the phone number written next to the letter H on the paper. He noticed that the handwriting was distinctly feminine as the computer did it's magic to locate the address associated with the number.

"Is this about the case Boss?" McGee glanced slightly over his shoulder to where Gibbs was leaning behind him.

"Nope."

McGee knew not to push any further, this was obviously personal and the Boss never answered personal questions. How many years had they worked together before McGee, Tony and Ziva even knew Gibbs had a wife and daughter who had died. Hell, he knew more about Ziva's personal life than he knew about Gibbs'.

"Ah here you go." McGee wrote the address down on a post it note and handed it to Gibbs.

"Good work McGee." Gibbs patted McGee on the shoulder. "Go home, get some sleep."

Maggie stood on a step stool in her shower. One hand held the shower head, one held the wrench. She'd managed to install the shower head and now was making sure it was secure. Satisfied it wasn't going to fall off; she stepped down off the stool and pulled it out of the shower.

"Here goes nothing."

Maggie reached in and turned the shower faucet on. The water spurted out at first and then began to flow at a normal rate.

"Not bad Sullivan." Maggie congratulated herself.

And then the shower head began to shudder.

"What the…"

Maggie didn't get to finish the sentence. The shower head burst spraying her with water. Maggie sputtered and tried to block the water with one hand while the other blindly reached for the knob to turn the water off.

She cursed as she reached for the nearest dry towel and wiped her face off. She was just about to move the step stool back into the shower to check what she had done wrong when her doorbell rang.

"Seriously? Now what?"

Maggie slid a little as she walked down the hallway to the stairs, her jeans and sneakers sopping wet.

"Freck…stop barking." She called to the dog who was facing the front door.

Maggie pulled the curtain aside and was completely shocked at who was standing there. She smiled, turned the deadbolt and put her hand down to the dog.

"Freckles, stay."

Gibbs started to laugh when Maggie opened the door all the way.

"You know…Most people take their clothes off when they shower." He grinned at her. "Looks like you could use some help."


	3. Chapter 3

"You should have checked the washer first to make sure it fit."

Gibbs wiped off his hands as he watched the water fall out of the shower head. He grinned at Maggie, he couldn't help it. When he was near her he just wanted to smile. He wanted to see her smile; the way it made her eyes crinkle. He was trying to figure out how old she was. Getting involved with a younger woman may not be a good move.

"I thought I did. I was just about to recheck it when you rang the bell."

Maggie had changed into a dry sweatshirt and jeans and was pulling her hair into a ponytail when she came back into the bathroom just in time to see Gibbs turning the water off.

"Probably should have used a step ladder instead of a step stool." He said as he smiled down at her.

"What I probably should do is wonder how you found out where I live." She finished putting the ponytail in and put her hands on her hips. "Or should I let Freckles have at you?"

At the mention of her name, Freckles head snapped up, her crooked ears at attention. One on top of her head one on the side. While Maggie was in her room changing, Freckles stayed outside the bathroom, lying on the floor, head on her paws, keeping an eye on Gibbs. Maggie looked down at her normally suspicious dog that was now wagging her tail.

"Some guard dog you are." Maggie said in Freckles direction. "He could be a bad guy." She tipped her head in Gibbs direction.

"Nah, she's just a good judge of character." Gibb squatted down and patted his knee. Freckles got up and walked over to him. She was rewarded with a scratch behind her ears and Gibbs got a lick on the cheek. "What kind of dog is she?"

"She's part Pitt and Dalmatian."

Gibbs looked up at Maggie and gave her a crooked smirk. "So you named her Freckles? Bit obvious don't you think?"

"She came with the name." Maggie said trying to control her suddenly racing heart. When Jethro looked at her and smiled that lopsided smile he was giving her, her heart did a double time beat. "I wanted to change it to Fenway, but my son said Freckles fit. Now are you going to tell me how you found out where I live Jethro?"

Maggie,knew she should be worried; she knew absolutely nothing about this man but his name and phone number, but seeing Jethro standing there in front of her dressed in khaki pants, a blue polo shirt that set off his eye color, and the white tee shirt underneath, put her at ease.

"Gibbs. You can just call me Gibbs." He smiled as he stood back up "I just used looked it up. On the computer. I couldn't find you in the phone book."

They stood less than a foot apart. Gibbs could smell Maggie's perfume. She must have put some on when she went to change. She smelled like oranges and flowers. Maggie could smell … well nothing she noticed. Gibbs wasn't a man who felt he needed cologne or any of that body spray stuff her son used. Gibbs just smelled clean. She bet he even used Ivory soap.

"Well Gibbs. Now that you've saved my shower again, can I offer you a cup of coffee? Or maybe a beer?" Maggie felt the words catch in her throat. This guy was still a stranger, what if Freckles good guy radar was off?

"A beer would be good. I, um, actually looked up your address to see if I could take you out for coffee." Gibbs told her. If he was being honest with her, he wasn't sure if he was going to even ring her bell. He drove around the block twice. Once to see if she was home and then the second time to work up the nerve to ring the bell. Walk into an interrogation with a murderer. No problem…rings the bell of a complete stranger and asks her out to coffee. That for some reason was harder for him. He'd been on enough dates and things that may not count as dates, but there was something about Maggie that was different for him.

Feeling the blush beginning to creep up her neck again, Maggie told Gibbs to follow her down to the kitchen. As they walked past the rooms upstairs, Gibbs noticed that there were 2 bedrooms on that floor and that only one had a bed in it. There weren't many furnishings, pictures or other homey items about.

"Still moving in?" He asked as they descended down the stairs into the front foyer.

The house was set up similar to his, with the living room taking up the front of the house and the kitchen in the back. The floors were hardwood and the walls were white. The house didn't have a separate dining room. When he walked into the kitchen he saw why. Maggie's kitchen was twice the size of his with a granite top center island that had red barstools on one side. This was the one room where she had unpacked her belongings. And from what she had unpacked; Gibbs could tell Maggie loved to cook.

"I only brought some of my stuff with me from Boston. When I'm ready, I sold most of the stuff with my old house and my son took some for his place. The rest, I'll just find when I need it." Maggie pulled out a bar stool at her kitchen island and motioned for Gibbs to sit.

"Does your son live here or on base?" Gibbs watched as Maggie went over to the stainless steel refrigerator. He saw some pictures of what had to be her son dressed in his formal dress Marine uniform and a couple of the same man as a younger child. His eyes were diverted from the pictures when Maggie bent over and he found his eyes drawn to her backside.

Maggie pulled out two Corona's, took the bottle opener off the side of refrigerator and popped the caps off before coming to stand next to Gibbs at the counter. She handed one beer to Gibbs and tapped the neck of her bottle against his.

"To saving my shower." She smiled as she leaned against the counter.

"To saving your shower." He echoed and watched as she took a long sip of her drink. A strand of hair had come loose from her ponytail and he had the urge to reach out and touch it, but Maggie beat him to it and tucked the errant strand behind her ear.

"So, how do you like DC so far? Different from Boston?"

Maggie pulled out the barstool next to Gibbs and sat on it. They were both turned in their stools so that their knees touched. Neither of them moved away, so there they sat at the kitchen island, knees just touching each other; getting to know the other person.

"Boston was hard to leave. I lived there most of my life. But it was time for a change. Jamie…that's my son, he was being assigned to the Marine Combat Development Command. When I came down to visit, I fell in love with the area. There was no reason to really stay in Boston. I have family members down in the area and once I found this place, the rest was a no brainer." Maggie told him. "And you? Are you originally from here?"

"Nope. A place called Stillwater Pennsylvania. Lived here in the DC area around 15 years give or take."

"Marine?" Maggie asked.

Gibbs smiled. "What gives it away?"

"The haircut and the fact you don't slouch."

"Don't slouch?"

"You sit up pretty straight. I like that in a man." Maggie heard the words out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"Do you now? What else do you like?" Gibbs folded his arms on the counter top and leaned forward.

Maggie didn't flinch or move back. She copied Gibbs' posture and leaned in.

"I like a man who can fix a shower head but can't figure out how to use a self-scan at the checkout."

Jesus am I really flirting like this? Maggie thought as the two of them just looked at each other for a moment that seemed a lot longer than it actually was. Maggie's heart sped up at the thought that Gibbs was close enough to lean forward and kiss her.

Gibbs looked down at Maggie's mouth and then back up at her eyes. All he needed to do was just lean forward and he could kiss her. He started to move closer and then it happened. His damned cell phone rang.

Maggie's breath caught. He was going to kiss her. She couldn't stop looking into his eyes. She wanted nothing more than to have him close the gap and kiss her. The sound of his cell phone broke the spell.

"You going to answer that?" Maggie's voice came out in a whisper.

Gibbs continued to stare into Maggie's eyes, ignoring the annoying ring of his phone. After the 4th ring, it was obvious that whoever was calling wasn't going to give up. He didn't move away from Maggie as he grabbed his phone from its holder on his belt and flipped it open.

"Yeah, Gibbs."

"Gibbs Gibbs Gibbs. Why weren't you answering? I need you back here at the lab. I found something." Abby's voice sounded over the phone.

Maggie was close enough to hear a woman's voice and wondered if Gibbs was married or had a girlfriend. They hadn't gotten that far in their conversations yet.

"I'll be right there Abs." Gibbs clipped the phone shut and put it back in its holder. "I have to go."

Maggie nodded the question about who this Abs person was on the tip of her tongue.

"Work." Gibbs said as he stood up. Instinctively, he reached down and took Maggie's hands in his. "Raincheck?"

"Sure." Maggie noticed how Gibbs hands dwarfed hers. They felt rough and soft at the same time.

"Next time dinner?" Gibbs asked. "I know a few places you may want to try out."

"Sounds good." Maggie kept her hand in one of his and led him back to the front door. She reluctantly let his hand go so that he could put his jacket back on.

Gibbs opened the door and turned back to Maggie. He put his hand on her shoulder, leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. His lips lingered there a minute and he moved back.

"Tomorrow night. I'll call you then." He said as he reached in his coat pocket for his car keys.

Maggie reached up and put her hand on his cheek and turned his face towards hers. Taking the moment in her hands, she stood up on her tip toes and kissed him softly on the lips. Gibbs was surprised at Maggie's actions. He put his hand on her hip and bent down to continue the kiss for another moment. When they pulled apart Maggie looked into Gibbs' eyes.

"Takes the pressure off an awkward first kiss tomorrow." She winked at him.

Gibbs grinned and walked out the door and down the stairs to his car. He opened the driver's side door and looked back up at Maggie still standing in the door. He smiled at her and got into his car.

Maggie watched him drive down the block. She closed her front door, locked it and leaned back against it. She knew her face was red and she fanned her hands at her face. "Oh yeah. I'm in trouble."


	4. Chapter 4

"This place is nice." Maggie looked around the restaurant as Gibbs held her chair out for her to sit down.

He had called her earlier in the day to make the plans. The Scotch Grille had always been a favorite of his. Whenever Mike Franks had been in town, the two of them had made sure to go there at least one time. This was a tradition that Gibbs carried on with Mike's daughter in law Layla and her daughter Amira. Now that they were both living in the DC area, he tried to take them there a couple of times a year and he would tell Amira all about her Grandfather. Well the stories that a little girl could hear.

"Yeah, it is." Gibbs said as he sat down across from Maggie.

The lighting in the restaurant was subdued with candles on each table. When he'd come here with Franks, they'd sat at the bar and when he was here with Layla and Amira they sat in one of the larger booths that gave a young child like Amira room to move around. But tonight he'd asked for a table with a little more privacy. They were seated near the back of the restaurant and due to it being a weeknight, there were few other patrons in the restaurant.

Due to the unseasonably warm January day – temperatures had been in the 50's the past few days – Maggie had decided to wear a long sleeved turquoise sweater that was warm enough to wear with a light jacket, grey pants and boots. When she asked Gibbs where they were going, he'd told her not to get too dressed up and Maggie could tell that Gibbs had a certain "look" that he didn't seem to vary from. Pants, polo, jacket and the ever present white tee shirt. She knew that the tee shirt was a military thing. Her son Jamie had never worn them until he joined the marines, now she knew he had dozens of them.

"Can I get you a drink while you check the menu?" the waiter asked as he handed each of them a menu.

Gibbs ordered a beer and Maggie ordered a white wine.

"So what looks good to you?"

On the short drive from Maggie's house to the restaurant, Gibbs told Maggie he had chosen this place to take her because it was one of his favorites.

"Can't go wrong with steak."

Maggie looked up to see Gibbs looking at her. The menu lay under his hands as he leaned forward to look at her. Maggie fidgeted with the corner of the menu. Gibbs was giving her the same lopsided grin he'd had in the truck when he'd picked her up. He was on time, right at 7:00 just like he'd said he'd be, he helped her on with her coat and put his arm out for her to place her arm through as they walked over to his truck in the driveway. He walked her around to the passenger side and held the door open for her while she climbed in. Gibbs closed the door, walked around the front of the truck, all the while looking at her. When he got into the truck, Maggie was looking down trying to put the seatbelt on, but kept fumbling with it.

"Here, let me. Sometimes it sticks." Gibbs leaned over and took the end from her and placed it in the lock.

And before she knew it, his hand tipped her chin up to him and he kissed her. He'd started out gentle at first and then moved his hand up from her chin to the side of her head, his fingers sliding into her hair. Maggie could taste mouthwash on his lips as he kissed her. She moved her hand up to rest on his chest and Gibbs ended the kiss. Maggie could hear her heart pounding in her ears and she was completely breathless. She opened her eyes; Gibbs' face was still inches from hers, his fingers moving down from the side of her head, down along her cheek and back to her chin.

"Pressure's off the second kiss now." He smiled and leaned back to start the truck.

Since that kiss, any time Gibbs looked at Maggie, she'd felt her tongue tie and the back of her neck start to turn red. Gibbs liked that he'd caught Maggie off guard; just like she had the night before and all day long he'd been thinking about her. It was nice to see the effect he could have on her.

Maggie closed her menu and leaned forward, crossing her arms as she leaned on them knowing full well the view Gibbs was getting of the v-neck of her sweater. She became a little more grounded watching his blue eyes glance down and then back up while he quietly cleared his throat.

"So, how was your day?" Maggie asked sweetly as the waiter placed a glass of wine in front of her and Gibbs' beer in front of him.

Gibbs shrugged his shoulders and made a dismissive face as his answer.

"That good huh?" Maggie took a sip of her wine. She had to admit that she'd have rather had a beer; she wasn't a true wine lover, but at least sipping wine would make it last longer and Gibbs wouldn't get the wrong idea.

"What about you? Did you come down here with a job already or are you looking?"

"You have any suggestions?" she answered.

"Don't know, what are you looking to do?"

The first thought in her head was to say "you" but she thought better and smiled.

"I actually do have a job already. I start next week but have some meetings later this week to go through the paperwork."

"Are you ready to order or do you need a few minutes?" The waiter appeared at the table again.

Gibbs ordered steak and Maggie ordered mahi mahi and the waiter left them alone again to get the chance to know each other.

"What kind of job?"

"I will be working with elementary aged special needs children, children on the Autistic spectrum. There is a new program at the Montgomery School in DC that tries to integrate Autistic children in main stream classes."

Gibbs wasn't totally surprised. Even though he resisted in asking McGee to do a background check on Maggie, he had pegged her as someone who had to be good with working with people. The fact that it was special needs children touched him.

"I've heard of that school. They do wonderful things with Autistic children. Is that what you did back in Boston?"

"I started out as a regular classroom teacher, teaching 3rd grade, but the opportunity came up to specialize in this field and once I started training I never looked back. This job opening up at the Montgomery just cemented my decision to move down here."

"It was that easy for you to just… up and leave?"Gibbs asked Maggie.

It was Maggie's turn to offer up a shrug as an answer.

"Jamie was down here, I don't really have any other family in Boston. And well, James wouldn't have wanted me to just stay in Boston because that is where he's buried. He'd have packed my bags for me and started the car."

"Not a great marriage?" Gibbs was hesitant about saying how many bad marriages he'd had and maybe if she'd had a bad marriage, she'd understand.

"No, great marriage actually;" Maggie paused to take a sip of wine. Talking about James on a first date was usually a bad sign. "We grew up in the same neighbor, went to school together up until college. He went to the police academy and I went to college and lived there. Connected again after college, fell in love and got married."

"He was a cop?"

"Yup, good old Southie cop. Third generation in his family."

"Southie? He was from South Boston?"

"Both of us were, he was born there, I moved there with my parents when I was 5."

"Line of duty?" Gibbs knew he was being blunt, but Maggie had been a cop's wife; she knew about being blunt.

"Yes." She nodded her head as she gazed down at her wine glass. "Ten years ago. Drug bust gone bad. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Gibbs knew how she must have felt. Not a day goes by when he doesn't think of Shannon and Kelly being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maggie shook the cobwebs out of her head and turned the questions back to Gibbs.

"What about you? What's your story? Don't try to convince me that you are a confirmed bachelor."

The waiter appeared with their food and while they ate, Gibbs filled Maggie in on his three ex-wives and by the time dinner was over he'd told her about Shannon and Kelly. Maggie reached across the table and rested her hand on his.

"Guess we both know about losing the person who was the love of our life."

Gibbs gazed down at her hand and noticed she no longer wore her wedding ring. Maggie saw where he was looking and offered an explanation.

"I don't wear it because I'm trying to forget James, I can't forget him, and we have a son together. I took James' ring and mine and put them away. Maybe someday Jamie will want them for himself." Maggie gently squeezed Gibbs' hand which was now holding hers back. "Besides, I'm sure you have a collection yourself." She teased.

"No, no collection." He grinned back. "I think each ex got it in the divorce."

The waiter came back to the table and asked them if they wanted coffee. They both said yes. Neither one of them was ready for the night to be over but both unsure of what would happen next.

"You moved to Boston when you were 5? Where were you before?" Gibbs asked.

"I was born in New York, but my parents divorced when I was 5 and my Mom moved back to Boston, that's where she was from. She reconnected with my stepfather and they married. He raised me as his own."

"They still alive?"

"No, Dad died of cancer about 5 years ago, Mom followed three years ago. How about you?"

"Dad is still alive and a pain in my ass most of the time." Gibbs kidded. "Mom died when I was young."

"No brothers or sisters?" Maggie asked as the waiter poured coffee in their cups.

"Nope. You?"

Maggie took a sip of her coffee.

"I have a half-brother. Younger than me. From my biological father's second marriage."

That was telling; Gibbs thought. She called him biological father, not just Father.

"Take it you're not close? You and your brother that is."

Maggie put her coffee cup down and thought the best way to answer that question. Sometimes people thought she was cruel when she spoke of her biological father. But it is what it is and there wasn't anything she could do.

"See Gibbs, it's like this. My biological father was always looking for the next big thing. He met my mother and thought he'd be happy with the white picket fence and all that. But he had champagne taste and ginger-ale pockets. After I was born he went to New York to find the opportunity to make his mark and make money. My mother followed him with me and well, long story short. He found his opportunity when he met a trust fund with blonde hair and blue eyes. I was five years old, and suddenly my father says that he loves me, but he won't be around. My mother didn't cry, she just packed us up and off we went. "

"Sounds cruel. You were only five and all."

"It is what it is. I can't blame my step-mother. She was actually nice to me. Never missed my birthday or Christmas. Even made sure I got to know my brother."

"Was your Father around when you spent time with your brother?"

"Not really. And I had a huge chip on my shoulder about my brother being the favorite son and all."

"Did it affect your relationship with your brother?"

"No. I really felt bad for my brother. Especially when his mother died. He was only 8, and his father didn't know what to do with him. So my brother was shipped off to boarding school and summer camps while he went from the next wife to the next big thing and so on."

Gibbs felt his gut begin to turn and it had nothing to do with the steak or asparagus he'd eaten. Why did Maggie's story sound so familiar?

"So, your brother. Where is he now? You said you had family in the area." Gibbs fished and started preying he was not going to hear what came next.

"He is. He works for the Navy, NCIS. Have you heard of them."

"You could say that." Gibbs reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge.

"You work for them?" Maggie was surprised. "Then you must know my brother Tony."

Gibbs thought this couldn't be happening.


	5. Chapter 5

Getting out of her car in her driveway, Maggie juggled her book bag, purse and takeout. It had been a long couple of meetings with parents and teachers about the children she'd be dealing with. For the most part, her mind was on the meetings, but if she had to be completely honest, she'd been thinking about Gibbs too. They'd gone out and had a good time three nights ago. She thought he'd had a good time too. But he hadn't called or texted. Nada, nothing, not a word. Every time she'd checked her phone there were messages from her son or her brother, but not Gibbs. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he wasn't really that interested. And she had a rule; she would not be the one to call him. She may be a modern take care of herself kind of girl, but the ball was in Gibbs' court, if there was to be a next move it had to come from him.

A chorus of barks told Maggie that Freckles desperately needed to go out.

"One sec Freck."

Maggie put all of her packages on the kitchen island and unlocked the back door. She had barely opened it and Freckles bolted out the door and into the yard. Maggie watched her dog for a few seconds and then took her phone out. Still nothing from Gibbs, but there was another text from her brother.

"Avoid much?" Tony had texted her.

She supposed that she had been doing just that. She thought about calling him earlier to ask about Gibbs, but another of her rules was that she kept her private life private. She never introduced any guy she was dating to her son or told Tony about them until there was anything to tell. Tony had a great relationship with her late husband James. It was James who convinced him to become a cop and each time he transferred (from Peoria to Philadelphia and finally Baltimore) James made phone calls and helped to pave the way, even when Maggie told him to let Tony figure things out on his own.

She tapped her iPhone to contacts and tapped on Tony's speed dial number.

"Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo."

"Why do you say you are very special? It makes you sound…well…" Maggie teased her brother.

"More than a little special?" She could almost hear Tony grinning on the phone. "Finally decided to stop avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding Tony; I've had a really busy week." Maggie answered as she took the sushi out of the bag and put it in the refrigerator. "I had meetings and some things to do around here. I asked you to come over."

Tony made a shuddering noise. "You know I don't do manual labor."

"Yeah I know." Maggie let the dog back in and gave her some water.

"And besides, that beast of yours doesn't exactly like me."

"Freckles likes you fine." Maggie reached down to scratch behind the dog's ear. "It's you who doesn't like her."

"Dog doesn't like men. You even said that yourself. Didn't she bite some guy you were dating?"

Maggie laughed at the memory. She'd been set up on a blind date back in Boston. The guy was such a jerk. Freckles must have sensed the guy's level of jerkiness and when he'd brought her home and tried to manhandle her at the door, Freckles nipped at the guy's backside. Got rid of that date quick.

"She's got a great sense of whose nice and who's not." Maggie thought back to the night Gibbs just showed up at the door. And that thought led her to think that she was talking to Tony who was at work and made her want to ask about Gibbs. But she didn't, she wouldn't break that rule. When she made a rule a rule, she made it stick.

"You there Mags?"

"No, sorry Tony, what did you say?" she shook the thoughts of Gibbs out of her head.

"I said, do you want to get together tomorrow night? My treat…"

"Oh wait, you're treating huh, no way I can turn that offer down."

"I'll pick you up at 7."

Gibbs had overheard part of Tony's phone conversation when he'd passed Tony's desk. Tony was on the phone with Maggie. Gibbs sat down at his desk and tried to overhear what Tony was saying. Not that it was hard; Tony was being loud enough as if he wanted someone to ask who he was talking to.

"I'll see you then Mags." Tony said as he hung up.

"New woman?" Ziva asked from her desk. Like Gibbs and McGee, they'd heard most of the conversation and new that Tony had been on the phone with a woman with whom he was going out with tomorrow night.

"No." Tony moved his chair back from his desk and prepared to drop one of the bombs he'd kept a secret. "I'm taking my sister out to dinner tomorrow night."

Tony looked from Ziva to McGee to Gibbs to judge their reaction. Ziva and McGee looked surprised, McGee's mouth actually hung open; Gibbs just looked up and said nothing.

"Sister as in Nun?" McGee questioned skeptically.

"You said you do not have a sister." Ziva added.

Tony leaned back in his chair, folded his hands behind his head and looked up at the skylight.

"Ah, one of my many secrets." He grinned and paused for dramatic effect. "But yes, Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo Jr. does have an older half-sister."

"From which parent?" McGee asked.

"Why have you never said anything?" Ziva asked at the same time.

Tony put his hands up "One at a time children, one at a time."

McGee nodded to Ziva to go first.

"Why have you never told us of this older half-sister?"

"Maggie, her name is Maggie." Tony said.

Ziva shook her head. "Why have you never told us about Maggie?"

"Maggie is a private person and I respect her privacy."

Gibbs wondered if Tony would respect Maggie's privacy if he'd know that he and Maggie had gone out on a date and shared a couple of kisses. Amazing kisses Gibbs reminded himself.

"From which parent?" McGee asked his question.

"Her full name is Margaret Elizabeth DiNozzo Sullivan. Does that help?"

"So you share a father then." Ziva nodded her head. She'd had a half sibling from her father; she understood that sometimes those ties could be somewhat confusing.

"How come we've never met her before?" McGee began. "Like when you had the plague."

Gibbs had wondered why he'd never heard of Maggie from then either. Maggie seemed like she would have been the type of person who'd have dropped everything to be there for her family.

"Because I had the PLAGUE McNosey." Tony shot at McGee. "I didn't want her to get sick, but she didn't listen, she came down and spent that first week with me."

This was a surprise to Gibbs. Wouldn't Tony have mentioned him or any of the others when she was there?

"I called you a bunch of times when you were sick, so did Kate. Neither of us talked to a woman when we called." McGee questioned.

"You called my cell phone and I kept it with me. Maggie only got the house phone. I don't give that number out freely."

"So is she down here visiting?" Ziva wanted to know more about this mysterious sister.

"No, she just moved to the area, Alexandria to be exact." Tony looked from Ziva to McGee before he dropped the next comment. "Her son is stationed at Quantico."

Ziva shook her head and put her hands up in front of her.

"Hold on Tony. You have a half-sister and a nephew that you've never talked about? I find this all hard to sip."

"Swallow, it's hard to swallow Ziva." Tony corrected. "And I have mentioned Jamie, that's my nephew. I just never said 'my nephew Jamie.'"

"You have mentioned going out on the town with Jamie a couple of times." McGee remembered.

Tony pointed over at McGee "Aha..See Ziva, McGee remembers. Thank you McGee."

"I just assumed that Jamie was one of your frat brothers."

"No, he's a Lance Corporal in the Marine barracks at Quantico. Lance Corporal James Michael Sullivan."

"So your sister is married?" Ziva noticed the different last name.

"No, widowed unfortunately. Maggie's husband was a cop in Boston. He was killed in a drug bust gone bad."

Gibbs half listened while Tony filled in Ziva and McGee on things he already knew about Maggie. Things she'd told him at dinner the other night. He didn't know how many times he'd picked up the phone to call her and hung up. He wasn't sure what to do. He liked Maggie and wanted to get to know her better but she was DiNozzo sister and that was a form of Rule #12 – Never dates a co-worker. Okay, technically Maggie wasn't a co-worker, but she was the sister of a co-worker. On the other hand, DiNozzo did say that she was a private person and didn't talk to him much about her personal life.

"Boss, you'd like Maggie." Tony's comment brought Gibbs out of his thoughts.

"Is that so DiNozzo?" Gibbs said as he stood up and began to collect his wallet and coat to head out for the night.

"Yeah, she's a red head."

Gibbs smirked as he turned his desk light off. "Go home people. It's Friday night, have a good weekend."

"You too Boss." McGee replied.

"That's weird." Tony said as he watched Gibbs step into the elevator.

"What is weird? You mastered weird tonight Tony." Ziva said as she put her coat on.

"Gibbs leaving before 9 on a Friday night? Hmm, I wonder." Tony grabbed his car keys and joined Ziva and McGee in walking to the elevator.

"Wonder what?" McGee let Ziva step into the elevator first.

"Wonder if Doc Ryan is back in town. Gibbs has seemed a little different this week."

Maggie moved the ladder over to the other side of the garage to make some space for her table. Seamus O'Bannon may have been her step father, but he raised her and instilled the love of fixing things in her. He'd come home after his shift and there would be some new treasure he'd have found. A table, a bookcase, even a row boat one time; if it was fixable, Seamus would bring it out to the garage, strip the paint off it and bring it back to life with wood glue, nails, a new coat of paint, whatever it needed. One of Maggie's prized possessions was an old wooden jewelry box that Seamus' mother had brought over from Ireland. Seamus refinished it and gave it to Maggie when she was 16. The story was Seamus's father made for Seamus' mother as an engagement present. They couldn't afford a ring at the time so the small wooden jewelry box was his promise to her that one day it would be filled with all that he could give her.

Maggie loved spending time out in the garage with Seamus bringing old things back to life. The things that meant more to her came from the heart not from the store. She hoped that she'd been able to pass that on to her own son. But before she did that, she had to organize her workspace. Freckles stretched out by the closed garage door on her dog bed, happily snoring away. Maggie pulled up several smaller boxes and started organizing their contents on the work bench.

"Ah, here you are." Maggie exclaimed when she'd found her iPod. She checked the battery level and saw that there was enough battery power in it to get through setting the work bench up. She put the ear buds in her ears and queued up the song list. Pink's song "Try" started playing and Maggie danced a little bit as she set out to work.

Gibbs rang the doorbell and looked inside. He knew Maggie was home because her car was in the driveway and the lights were on in the house. When no one answered he walked back down the stairs and up the driveway. Maybe she was in the yard with Freckles. When Gibbs walked around the back of the house he stopped short in surprise. The two times he'd been at her house he'd never looked in the back yard. At the far edge of the yard was what could only be called a small barn. It easily rose up 1 and one half stories and had a loft window in the top and a pair of barn doors that slid open to the side. On either side of the front barn doors there was a window. Light came from the windows and Gibbs saw Maggie walk….no…it looked like she was dancing…by. He walked over to the barn and saw that on the side there was a door and it was slightly open. He gently moved the door open a little wider. Freckles lifted her head from the dog bed and wagged her tail. Gibbs motioned her to stay quiet and stay in her dog bed and turned his attention back to Maggie.

Whatever she was listening to on her pod thingy was making her dance and whatever that song was, Gibbs was thankful for. He was thoroughly enjoying watching her hips sway to the beat of the song. Yeah, he grinned, he needed to find out what that song was.

Maggie's back was to him so she didn't see him leaning against the door frame, eyes travelling over the length of her body as she moved. He looked at the way her sweat pants hung low on her hips and when she lifted her arms up to hang a tool on the peg board, her lower back was exposed. He liked the way her waist curved in and then flared out curve out to her hips and then back down to her legs. Gibbs was so engrossed with appreciating Maggie's back side he didn't pay attention to what she was doing. Maggie had stepped up on a turned over paint bucket to reach up to a shelf. She was putting several smaller glass jars on the shelf when she lost her footing. Gibbs snapped out of his fog and ran across the room to grab her just before she fell.

Maggie let out a scream as Gibbs scooped her up in his arms. The jars that she was putting on the shelf fell and shattered on the floor.

"What the.."Maggie realized that she was in Gibbs' arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I guess I'm making a habit of rescuing you from dangerous shelves."

"Stay." Gibbs commanded Freckles to stay where she was while he swept up the broken glass on the floor. Maggie brought the trash bin over and a piece of cardboard to help sweep the glass up and into the trash.

Maggie wasn't sure what to say to Gibbs. She hadn't heard from him since he kissed her goodnight at the door the other night and wondered if he'd said anything to Tony. No, that couldn't be it; Tony most definitely would have said something. She squatted down while Gibbs brushed the broken glass up into the cardboard.

"Be careful. Some of those are big." Gibbs said referring to the glass.

Maggie just nodded her head. Gibbs knew Maggie wanted to know what was going on, he'd kissed her goodnight at the door; but that kiss wasn't anything like the one he'd given her in the car. She probably thought he'd changed his mind about her. But that wasn't it. He was trying to figure this all out. This was not familiar territory for him.

Gibbs' head snapped up when he heard Maggie let out a string of curses his Marine buddies would have loved.

"What happened?"

Maggie's back was to him but when she turned to face him, her hand was bleeding.

"There must have been a piece on the work table I didn't see and I put my hand on it." She explained as she cradled her hand, palm up.

"We need to get a better look at it."

Gibbs guided her by the arm out of the barn, across the backyard and into the kitchen.

"First Aid Kit?"

Maggie motioned over to the sink. Gibbs took her by the wrist and led her to the sink.

"I can do this Gibbs."

Gibbs positioned Maggie in front of the sink and stood behind her. She was pressed up against the sink in the front and Gibbs was pressed behind her. Maggie just wanted to lean her body back into him. He felt so damned good behind her. The way he dressed definitely hid the fact that he was still pretty solid under that shirt. Their height difference made it easy for him to see over her and turn on the sink faucet. When the water warmed up, he ran her hand under it. She let out a quick gasp at the sting. Gibbs moved her hand out of the water and blotted at it gently with a paper towel.

"Oww."

"There must be a piece in there still." Gibbs poked gently at the cut.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his knife. Maggie tried to step out from between Gibbs and the sink.

"You have to be kidding. You're going to use a knife to get the glass out? I have tweezers in the first aid kid."

"Don't you trust me?" Gibbs' voice was right next to her ear. "Turn around."

Maggie turned slowly around. Gibbs hadn't stepped back when she did this so her hip brushed up against him and his eyes briefly closed. Maggie swallowed slowly and hoped that she'd just felt his phone in his pocket. Gibbs put his hand on Maggie's hip and moved her to the side, away from the sink and then lifted her up to sit on the counter.

"Flash light?"

"In this drawer." Maggie indicated the one that was now behind her knees where she sat on the counter.

Gibbs' eyebrow arched up when Maggie moved her knees apart so she could open the drawer. He smiled when she began to blush.

"Here" Her voice came out softly as she handed him the flash light.

He clicked it on and moved her hand closer using the light to get a better look.

"Hold the light here." He said giving her the flash light.

Taking an alcohol wipe out of the first aid kit, he wiped off the tip of his knife and blew on it so the alcohol wouldn't sting. Then very gently he picked up Maggie's hand again and brought it up closer to his face and placed the tip of the knife at the cut to ease the piece of glass out of the cut.

Maggie closed her eyes and held her breath while Gibbs used the knife to ease out the glass. She barely felt him moving the sharp tip of the knife into her skin.

"You can breathe now." Gibbs told Maggie as he wiped off her palm with cotton square and put a band aid on the cut. When he finished, he placed a soft kiss ontop of the band aid. He let go of her hand and put his hands on either side of her legs on the counter and looked at Maggie. Their eyes locked, neither one saying anything.

Gibbs closed his eyes and took a breath before he began to talk.

"I have these rules that I go by."

Maggie nodded her head.

"One of them is to not date a co-worker."

Again, Maggie nodded.

"And I'm Tony's boss."

"Yeah, you are." Maggie began to understand.

She reached out with her unbandaged hand and touched his cheek.

"But I keep relationships to myself. Unless there is something to tell, I don't. And if there is something to tell, then we 'll cross that bridge at that time."

Gibbs liked the feel of Maggie's soft fingers touching his face then moving back to the side of his head. He tipped his head and kissed her. Gently at first, then when he felt her tongue touch his lips he opened his mouth and they began to explore each other's mouths. He moved his hands down to her knees and pulled them apart to pull her knees on either side of his hips Maggie let out a gasp when he pulled her closer now knowing it wasn't his phone she'd felt.

Gibbs broke the kiss and rested his forehead against Maggie's. He ran his hands back and forth slowly from her shoulder blades back down the outsides of her thighs and back up.

"This is going to be tricky." He said with a smile.


	6. Chapter 6

"Yeah, it's going to be tricky." Maggie said as she ran her hands across Gibbs' shoulders and down his arms. "But there is no other way."

Gibbs nodded. If Tony knew about them seeing each other it would be difficult at work to say the least. But as long as both he and Maggie kept work – his work – and their private life private then it should be okay.

"I'm not saying we have to sneak around." Gibbs added.

"Sneaking around could be kind of fun." Maggie teased. "But I understand. The less Tony knows, the better off we'll all be."

Gibbs smiled at Maggie and leaned in to kiss her again. Hands explored while lips and tongues tasted. They pulled back from each other realizing they had to slow down a bit.

"I don't know about you, but I could use a drink." Maggie cleared her throat.

"Me too." Gibbs moved back from the counter and helped Maggie down. "Maybe a cold shower too."

"That could be dangerous in this house." Maggie winked at Gibbs as she took two beers from the refrigerator and walked into the living room. Gibbs followed.

They sat down on the couch, which was the only piece of furniture in the room.

"Minimalist?" he looked around the room. "I thought that was my style."

Maggie handed him his beer as he sat down beside her on the couch, one arm on the cushion behind her. She watched as he took a long drink of his beer.

"No not minimalist; more like I haven't found what I want yet." Maggie looked around the room. Besides the couch, there were curtains and shades on the windows, and on the fireplace mantle she had a few pictures of Jamie, her parents and one of James and Jamie.

"What are you looking for?" Gibbs wondered. He noticed there was no television in the room.

"I'm really looking for a nice roll top desk. One that I can refinish the way I want. Maybe another chair or two. A coffee table." Maggie gave him a general list. "I have some things coming down from Boston next week. Stuff that I didn't sell with …" Maggie got distracted by Gibbs leaning and trailing kisses down the side of her neck. "Keep that up Marine and we'll end up christening this couch."

"Could be nice." He answered between kisses.

"Mm mm…would be." She sighed.

Gibbs leaned back and took another sip of his beer. He saw the pictures up on the mantle.

"None of Tony or your Dad." He noticed.

"Tony's picture needs a new frame and I don't have any of Senior."

"Senior? You call him that too?"

Maggie gave Gibbs a confused look.

"Tony usually refers to your father as Senior and he calls Tony Junior."

"You've met Senior?"

Gibbs nodded slowly. "A few times."

"How'd that go?"

Gibbs tipped his head and smirked. "Well I wouldn't say we're going fishing any time soon."

Maggie sipped her beer and nodded. Gibbs noticed she'd gotten quiet. He traced his fingers back and forth on the back of her neck.

"Hey." He said softly to get her attention.

Maggie pulled at the label on the beer bottle. "Well you obviously know what Senior is like then."

"You never call him Dad or your Father."

"No, I don't." Maggie shook her head. "That's because my step-father is who I consider my father. Senior is just Senior. Nothing more. I suppose that sounds awful."

"Nope." Gibbs tipped back the last of his beer. He didn't like the way their father treated Tony, he can't imagine he was any better with Maggie. But Gibbs was wrong…he was worse.

"See." Maggie pulled her feet up underneath her legs and turned more to face Gibbs. "When my Senior left my mother, he never looked back. She got no child support or alimony or anything. I don't think I even heard from him until Tony was born.

Gibbs pulled Maggie's legs out and rested them across his lap. He put the empty beer bottle on the floor and left one arm on the couch cushion behind Maggie, while the other hand rested on her knees.

"How many years was that?" he asked.

"He and my mother divorced when I was 5 and Tony was born 3 years later. And I think that I only heard from him was at his wife's urging."

"Did you spend time with Tony then?"

"Sometimes. They lived on Long Island and they would never come out to South Boston. So on weekends, when Tony's mom would ask for me to come out my Uncle Vincenzo.."

"The one who was a butcher right?"

"Tony mentioned him?"

Gibbs nodded.

"Well Uncle Vincenzo never liked what Senior had done, leaving my mother and me, and he kept in touch with my mother, he was my Godfather…sorry I'm rambling…but Uncle Vincenzo would take the train to Boston and pick me up to bring me back to Long Island for the weekend. Friday nights until Sunday night."

"Did you see Senior?"

Maggie shook her head. "Nope, I just stayed at the house with Tony and his nanny. Don't get me wrong, Tony's mother was nice to me. She would make sure I got birthday presents and Christmas presents and all that, she was who she was. She loved going to the movies."

"So that is where Tony gets it from."

"Yeah, when he was 6 or 7 I think, it was before she got sick, I was around 14, she had us get all dressed up to attend a movie premiere in the city." Maggie smiled at the memory. "I don't remember the movie but I remember she took me to get my hair done and bought me a beautiful dress. She even let me wear these pearls of hers that I loved. Then it all changed."

"She got sick."

"She did. By that time even my mother had come to like her too. I think Mom felt bad for her. She'd figured out that Senior was good at acting like he'd had money, but he always backed the wrong horse. When she got sick, Senior just shut down. All he thought about was how her dying was going to affect him, not the fact that his 8 year old son was losing the only person who was there for him."

"You were there too."

Maggie finished the rest of her beer and nodded.

"When Tony got shipped off to Rhode Island Military Academy I was furious. Tony wasn't even 10 and he was sent away. How could he do that? Then Senior had the nerve to call my parents and ask if he could have what Tony's Mom left me."

"The pearls?"

"Yes, the pearls. It was a set, a necklace and bracelet. Senior hit a money flow problem and needed some cash. He argued that I wasn't her blood and they belonged in the family."

"Couldn't have gone over well." Gibbs commented.

"No, no it didn't. Let's just say I never knew my Mom could throw a right hook like she did."

Gibbs tipped his head back and laughed.

"After that, I had no contact with Senior. When I was old enough to drive down to Tony's school I did almost any free time that I could. When Senior abandoned Tony there for the holidays, I'd sweet talk the headmaster to let me take my brother back to Boston so he'd be around family. Tony really loved being part of that. My father taught him all about basketball. Always took him to a Celtics game. They bonded over sports and police work."

"Isn't that why Tony was disowned? For becoming a cop?"

"That's what he likes to say, but you can't be disowned if there is nothing to disown from. His mother's family made sure that there was money for Tony's education. They didn't like that he majored in Phys. Ed at Ohio State; they thought he could have done better. But no matter what Tony did, I told him I'd support his choices. Sometimes they can be cringe worthy but I kept my promise."

"And you haven't seen or spoken to Senior in that long?"

Maggie shook her head slowly. "Senior never came to my wedding, my son's christening…he sent nice cards and checks that I never chanced cashing. But what sealed it for me. He never even acknowledged when James died. I know he knew about it because Tony told me he told Senior all about it."

Gibbs didn't say anything. Not acknowledging his son in laws death was worse than having his father show up with a date to Kelly and Shannon's funeral.


	7. Chapter 7

Tony pulled up to Maggie's new house and parked in front. Getting out of the car he looked at the house. He had always liked the house she and James had in Boston. Any time he'd been there the house was filled with friends. Neighbors sitting in the back yard passing time. Jamie's friends shooting hoops in the driveway. That house screamed welcome. That house was what Tony would call a home. Not that there wasn't anything wrong with Maggie's new house. Tony had checked it out for her before she came down from Boston to look at it. It had everything she wanted. Nice front yard, driveway on the side, porch that ran the length of the front of the house. There was even a mini barn in the back that she could use as a workshop.

He grinned at the thought of Maggie in her workshop. She was so the perfect woman for Gibbs. Loves to build and repair things, she was smart, stubborn and a red head.

"Maybe I should make sure they never meet." Tony said out loud to himself. "That would be scary."

"Still talking to yourself?" Maggie asked from the front door.

"Just saying you made a good pick Mags." Tony walked up the front stairs and across the porch to stop in front of his sister. "Glad you're finally here." He grabbed her in a bear hug and kissed her on the cheek.

"Nice to see you too Tony. Come on in."

"Cujo around?" Tony looked inside the front door to see if Freckles was lying in wait.

"Tony, she's not a mean dog. She just senses your fear of her."

Tony tugged on the sleeve of the leather jacket he was wearing and cautiously followed Maggie into the living room.

"Fear is good. Keeps you sharp." Tony stepped into the living room when he didn't see the dog in there.

"Well don't worry, she's out in the kitchen with a big bone and she won't bother you."

"She kill the animal before she brought the bones in?"

Maggie laughed at her brother. "Tony, Pet Smart only sells rawhide, not fresh kill. Come on let's go."

Tony drove them to one of his favorite pizza restaurants in Old Town.

"You'll love it here, I promise." Tony held the door open for Maggie as they walked in.

And Tony was right. The place screamed Little Italy from the red and white checked table clothes, to the faux-frescos on the walls to the candles dripping down the wine bottles on the tables.

"Reminds me of…" Maggie began. And Tony finished her sentence "Gino's Place in Baltimore."

"That place was wicked."

Tony smiled at his sister as they sat down at a table. "Can take the girl out of Boston but can't take Boston out of the girl."

"Amen little brother." She winked at him as she slipped her jacket off and put it on the free chair at the table.

"You need to try the Atomica." Tony kissed his fingers. "It's amazing."

"Okay, I'll trust you."

The waitress came to the table, and after Tony flirted a little, he placed the order and added a couple of beers.

"So, how's the new job?"

"It's good. There are a lot younger kids in this program, but I meet them on Monday and I'm really looking forward to it." Maggie explained. "I miss being around the kids. It was hard to leave my kids in Boston."

"Why didn't you wait until June? It would have been easier."

Maggie shrugged her shoulders. She had only told Tony part of the reason she left mid-year.

"I heard about this job and it's a smaller school that specializes in children with Autism. Besides Jamie is here, you are here, so why not finally live closer to my baby brother?"

The beers arrived along with a basket of fresh rolls. Tony flirted more with the waitress until she left the table.

"She's a little young for you don't you think Tony?"

"A little harmless flirting never hurt anyone." He replied. "And speaking of flirting, how did Joe take you leaving Boston?"

Joe Antonelli was the man she had been dating back in Boston. Tony met him the last time he came to visit 6 months earlier.

"We broke up four months ago." Maggie told him.

"He seemed like a nice guy. Someone you could have settled down with."

Maggie didn't answer and took a long sip of her beer.

"Something you want to tell me Mags?" Tony worried about the look on Maggie's face. He knew she began fiddling with the napkin in front of her that she was hiding something.

"Mags…really come on. You're kind of scaring me here. Is there something I need to know?" Tony reached his hand out and stopped Maggie from shredding more of the paper napkin.

"Joe got to be suspicious."

"Suspicious of what?"

"Anything. If he saw me talking to anyone who was male he'd give me the third degree and accuse me of flirting with the guy."

"Okay, so he's jealous. Come on Mags; you're a beautiful woman."

Maggie made a face at Tony. "So that gives him the right to check my mail when I'm not home, drive by the house or call in the middle of the night if I accidentally left a light on. No Tony, jealousy isn't a reason, he became a stalker."

"Did he ever do anything to hurt you?"

"He tried…ONCE…"Maggie emphasized the word once. "My father taught me how to defend myself and the first time he grabbed me was the last time he grabbed me. I broke up with him that night and had a restraining order put on him."

"Helps to have friends in the police department. James' friends must have given Joe a hard time."

"Well I never had a problem after that." Maggie lied, Joe had continued to find ways to harass her, but Tony didn't need to know that now. "Then the job listing came up, Jamie got transferred, and the rest fell into place."

The pizza arrived and Maggie put a slice on each of their plates. The pizza lived up to its name of Atomic It had tomatoes, fontina cheese, olives, mozzarella and tons of hot pepper flakes. One slice alone had Maggie finishing her beer and asking for another.

"Speaking of Jamie." Maggie began when her mouth finally cooled down. "Would you like to tell me why you took him out on a DC bar crawl that ended at a strip club?"

Tony's head snapped up, his mouth hung open, a slice of pizza hung in front of his mouth, his face plastered with a "Who Me?" look.

Gibbs looked up from his workbench in the basement. He reached over and picked up his watch off the table. It was almost 11:00 now. He knew Maggie was going out to dinner with Tony at 7 and wondered if she was home yet. He stood up, stretched out the kinks in his back and picked up his phone. He punched out the numbers of Maggie's cell phone and hoped she was home and not out still with Tony.

"Bet you're hoping I'm at home answering this." Maggie said when she answered.

"Would have made for an interesting conversation if you were still out to dinner." Gibbs sat back down on the wooden stool. "How did it go?"

"Got home a few minutes ago. It was actually really nice to spend time with Tony, just the two of us."

"Are you washing dishes?" Gibbs could hear the sound of water running in the background.

"Nope, filling the tub."

"Bubble bath?"

Maggie laughed. "Yes, I'm a girl. Girls like bubble baths. I can like hammers, saws, baseball, and football and take a bubble bath. I'm guessing you're not a fan of them."

"Nope, not bubble or regular. I'm a shower guy."

"Not even if you had company?" Maggie teased as she tested the temperature of the water and adjusted the taps.

"You asking for company?" Gibbs had a mental image of Maggie in the tub.

"I don't think you're the coconut mango bubbles kind of guy."

"I could be if you wanted." Gibbs offered.

Maggie thought for a second. She wondered if he would come over if she asked.

"I don't know Gibbs, I've been looking forward to this bath all week." She teased. "I'm not sure if I want to share."

Gibbs laughed at her shyness. Then again, would he really go over if the bubbles were all fruity and girly? Hell yeah he thought; naked Maggie in a tub? He'd run every stop sign and red light between their houses.

"Okay then, I'll pick you up at 7 in the morning."

"Tomorrow morning? Do we have plans?" Maggie wondered.

"We do. And since I'm not coming over tonight, you'd better be ready right when I get there."

"Where are we going?"

"Dress warm. Seven sharp." Gibbs told her and ended the call. If he'd of stayed on a moment longer, he would have ran up the stairs to get his keys.

"Where are you taking me at 7 in the morning that I need to be dressed this warm for?" Maggie asked when she got into Gibbs' truck.

Gibbs was standing at her front door at exactly 7 in the morning dressed in jeans, work boots, a Carhart jacket with a blue hoody underneath. In each hand was a take-out cup of coffee. He leaned in to greet her, gave her a kiss and handed her one of the coffees. He gave what she was wearing the once over to make sure she'd be warm enough, reached behind her and pulled the front door shut.

"Man of few words this morning huh?" she followed him down the stairs. Gibbs simply looked over his shoulder and smiled at her.

"Do I even get a hint?" Maggie asked Gibbs as he backed down the driveway.

"Going fishing."

"Okay, fishing on a January Sunday morning." Maggie took a sip of her coffee, nice and hot and black, just how she liked it. "Okay, I can see that."

Gibbs hadn't been sure if his idea would work. Not all women liked to fish, never mind on a cold January morning, but his gut told him to go for it.

"Fish much?" He asked.

"Haven't been in a few years. My parents had a place up in New Hampshire and my dad would take me to a pond to fish."

"Well I hope you're good with live bait." Gibbs nodded down to one of the coolers at Maggie's feet. "One is lunch, one is bait."

"Better not get them confused." She smiled.

It took them two hours to get out to the pond. They fished until all the bait was gone and for their efforts they took home 3 good sized fish to have for dinner. Maggie caught one and Gibbs caught two. If they didn't meet a certain size, Maggie and Gibbs agreed to release the fish back into the water.

By 6pm, the fish had been cleaned and gutted by Gibbs and Maggie was cooking them. While Gibbs took Freckles out for a walk, Maggie wondered what was going to happen next. With the fish in the oven, dishes on the kitchen island, cold beer in the fridge, Maggie ran up to her bedroom to make it more presentable just in case it needed to be seen by someone other than herself. After a quick trip to the bathroom to drag a brush through her hair and make sure she still didn't smell fishy, Maggie went back downstairs.

"Good Girl." Maggie heard Gibbs in the kitchen with Freckles. He was squatting down next to the dog that was lying on her back while Gibbs scratched her tummy.

"Such an easy mark." Maggie teased Gibbs as he stood back up. "Now that she knows you'll scratch her belly, she'll never leave you alone."

Gibbs took a sip of his beer and pulled Maggie into him. He leaned down and kissed her.

"Jealous? Maybe you need your tummy rubbed?"

Maggie's tummy wasn't what suddenly felt in need of rubbing. She'd been sitting and standing and next to Gibbs all day. She'd look up from bating the hook with a worm and he'd be staring at her. The intensity of his stare gave her butterflies, goose bumps and a near orgasm one time. All he'd have to do is brush up against her or touch her with his hand and she'd shiver.

"Maybe." She stood up on her tip toes and kissed him back. "But right now I have fish to get out of the oven."

Gibbs didn't let her move away, his hand held her tight against his body, his hand moved down from her waist to her backside and back up. His eyes held hers in his gaze as he bent down to kiss her again. He captured her top lip first and then her bottom, sucking on it gently. Maggie had to grab on to his sweatshirt and grip it tight to keep her knees from giving out as he ran his tongue across her lips looking for entrance. Maggie gave it to him and was rewarded with the taste of beer on his tongue. A soft moan escaped from her throat as Gibbs kissed Maggie thoroughly. When he ended the kiss and lifted his head he looked down at Maggie. Her eyes were still closed and she was trying to catch her breath.

"Fish is going to burn." He reminded her.

Maggie blinked her eyes and moved away from Gibbs. She grabbed oven mitts from the counter and bent over to take the fish out of the oven. How the hell was she going to think of food after that kiss?

Freckles sat on the floor looking up at the two humans sitting at the kitchen island. She wondered what was wrong with these people. Freckles' human would take a bite and then push the food around her plate. The other human, the one who gave amazing belly rubs was close to shoveling the food in his mouth. And my human says I'm a greedy eater. Freckles watched the two of them and finally got up and walked over to her bed, walked in circles around it three or four times before curling up and falling asleep on it.

"Not going to finish that?" Gibbs pointed at the un-eaten fish on Maggie's plate. Before she could answer, Gibbs reached his fork over and stole the last piece of Maggie's fish.

"No, I guess I'm done." She shook her head and smiled at him.

She took her plate to the sink, rinsed it off and put it in the dishwasher. Gibbs grabbed his plate, did the same and handed it to Maggie to put in the dishwasher. He grabbed two more beers from the fridge and followed her into the living room.

"You were quiet during dinner." He said as they sat down on the couch.

"Well that kiss you gave me before we ate, remember that?"

Gibbs gave her his lopsided smirk. "Yeah."

"It kind of kissed the conversation right out of me."

Gibbs took her beer and placed it with his on the floor; he pulled her on to his lap and brought his mouth to her ear. "Let's see what I can do with this kiss."


	8. Chapter 8

Before Maggie knew what was happening, she was straddling Gibbs' lap on the couch.

Their mouths exploring, tongues tasting, and Gibbs' fingers moving along her sides. His hands moved to her hips and pulled her down against him. Maggie let out a gasp. She heard Gibbs moan slightly as he pushed up to meet her.

"Tell me to stop." His voice was ragged as he asked.

Maggie shook her head. "No."

"Tell me to leave now." He told her as his lips travelled down the side of her neck.

"No." Maggie whispered and brought her hands from his chest up to the sides of his face.

She captured his lips in a kiss, not letting him take control this time. She was rewarded with his hands grabbing her hips again and pulling her against him. Maggie knew if he kept doing that, what she wanted to happen upstairs in her bedroom would happen right there on the couch.

Gibbs moved his head back and looked at Maggie. Her lips were swollen from the kisses, her cheeks flushed and her breathing was as heavy as his. He liked how she looked and loved that he did it to her.

"Tell me what you want." He said, his fingers moving from her hips up under the material of her shirt tracing gently along her lower back making her squirm on his lap.

"I want you." She leaned in and kissed him gently.

"Upstairs." She kissed him again this time biting his lower lip gently.

"Now." She kissed him one more time and moved off his lap.

Holding her hand out to him, she led him from the living room and to the stairs. Gibbs only delayed them long enough to make sure the front door was locked and followed Maggie up to her bedroom.

Gibbs let her take the lead until they stepped inside her room. Then once the door was shut behind him, he grabbed her and pulled her against him. His lips and tongue ravaged her mouth as their hands moved over each others bodies to remove their clothing. They only pulled apart when shirts had to come over their heads.

Maggie put her hands out to touch Gibbs' chest. She'd felt his chest through material before, but to see him like this, with nothing but his jeans and socks on, took her breath away. He had the body of a man much younger. Her fingers traced a line down his chest, over his tight abdomen, and down the thin trail that lead to his belly button and to the top of his jeans which were now bulging.

Gibbs looked down at Maggie standing in front of him dressed in a blue lace bra and her jeans. At some point down stairs on the couch he'd taken the clip from her hair and let her hair down. With a flip of his fingers, the hook on the front of her bra would be undone and on the floor. Instead he brought her hands up to his belt buckle and placed her fingers on the ring. While she moved her fingers to release the leather from the buckle, his hands moved up along her arms. He was traced his fingers up along her arms, across her shoulders and down her chest to where the blue lace began on the cups of her bra.

Maggie's fingers trembled as she unfastened Gibbs' belt and unhooked the button on the top of his jeans. She was careful as she slid the zipper down its length. When she reached inside his jeans and slid her hand against him, he leaned his head back and caught his breath. Maggie leaned forward and placed tiny kisses along the gray hairs on his chest. Gibbs couldn't take much more and moved them toward the bed while he unbuttoned her jeans and pulled the zipper down. His powerful arms pulled her to him and he kissed her hard while he tugged her jeans down over her hips. Maggie broke the kiss and stepped back to finish taking her jeans off leaving her standing in front of him in nothing but her underwear. Gibbs got his jeans and socks off quickly and Maggie smiled to herself. Yup, Gibbs was a plain cotton boxer man. He didn't give her time to stare at him in his almost full glory; he picked her up and placed her on the bed covering her body with his. In seconds, all other clothing was gone and Maggie could feel him hard against her hip.

Gibbs pulled his head back to look down at Maggie.

"What's wrong?" she asked seeing the concern in his eyes.

"I don't think I can go slow."

Maggie traced her fingers along his cheek. "Then don't. We can do slow later."

That was all that Gibbs needed to hear. He pulled one of her legs up to his waist and with a quick thrust of his hips; he was buried deep inside her.

Maggie arched her back up to him and dug her nails into his arms as he thrust his body into hers. She had been more than ready for him from the time they started up the stairs. A few thrusts later and she cried out his name as her body exploded around him. Gibbs moved a few more times and grunted as his body released into hers. For a while, they stayed like that on her bed, bodies entwined as they waited for their breathing to slow. Gibbs moved first, rolling to his back, pulling Maggie to his side, her head resting on his chest. One of his hands stroked down her back while the other brushed his sweat dampened hair off his forehead. Maggie's hand rested on Gibbs chest, she could feel his heart still racing.

"Maggie." Gibbs said after a few minutes. "We didn't use anything."

Maggie smiled. No, they hadn't talked about protection. She leaned up on her arm and looked at him.

"I can't get pregnant if that's what you mean." She told him.

"No?" he replied tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Why?"

"I had a tough pregnancy with Jamie and couldn't have any more kids after that." Maggie saw a look of sadness on Gibbs' face. "Don't worry." She smiled. "Wait; is there something I should know?" Maggie emphasized the I to tease him.

Gibbs smiled, shook his head and pulled her head back down to his shoulder. He liked the way she felt against him. He liked the way they fit against each other. After a few minutes he realized that Maggie's breath had slowed down and she had fallen asleep. He reached over and pulled the blanket up over them and closed his eyes too. It had been a long time since he'd felt this at ease with a woman and he liked how it felt.

Maggie was lying on her side, Gibbs spooned behind her. She felt his arm lift off her and the bed dip as he got up. She heard him go into the master bathroom and shut the door. So he was going to leave in the middle of the night. Not what she wished for, but if he wanted to leave…her thoughts were cut off when she heard the toilet flush and his feet padding across the bedroom floor. At first she thought he was looking for his clothes, but she felt the bed dip as he climbed back in and his arm snaked around her waist.

"I know you're awake." He whispered and his lips captured her earlobe.

"Mmmm. I am." She purred.

"Time for slow." He told her as his hand cupped her breast and massaged it gently.

The smell of coffee entered Maggie's dream. And what a dream it was. She and Gibbs had made love once hard and fast and the second time; he'd gone slowly and did things with his mouth that made her blush.

"Wake up sleepy head." Gibbs' voice was in her dreams now and Maggie knew that it hadn't been a dream and today, her body was going to be pleasantly sore.

"I hope that coffee is for me." Maggie smiled, her eyes still closed.

"You have to wake up if you want it." Gibbs said as he sat down on the side of the bed.

"Careful, that's a loaded statement." Maggie opened her eyes to see Gibbs dressed and holding two mugs of coffee.

"If I didn't have to go home and shower and change for work, I'd give you what you want." He leaned down and kissed her softly.

"What time is it?" Maggie asked as she sat up pulling the sheet up in front of her.

"5 a.m. and you don't have to cover up on my account." He told her as he tugged at the sheet.

"What if I spill my coffee?"

"Then I'll clean it up." His crooked smirk told her exactly how he would do that.

"You figured out my coffee machine?"

"Have one at work, I like the drip machines, but this will do too." Gibbs took another sip and put the mug on the nightstand. "I have to head home. Dog's been fed and gone out." He kissed her again and stood up.

"You spoil me." Maggie smiled at him.

"I'll call you later." He told her as he walked to the bedroom door. "We're in the office all day going over cold cases."

"Sounds like fun."

"More like root canal." He told her. "But without the drugs."


	9. Chapter 9

"I think he's bouncing again."

McGee looked up at Ziva and gave her an odd look.

"Who's bouncing Ziva?" he asked.

"Gibbs. Gibbs is bouncing; he has a bounce in his step. Like he did with Dr. Ryan."

"Maybe she's back in town." McGee answered.

"Or he's building a new boat, or he had extra coffee, who knows with him." DiNozzo said from his stack of files on his desk. "All I know is he has no files and I do. What is up with that?!" He exclaimed and tossed his hands up in the air.

"Touch down DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked as he rounded the corner with a fresh coffee.

"No Boss. Just getting the oxygen flowing." DiNozzo moved his arms around like he was exercising. "Ah, feel better already."

Gibbs sat down at his desk and just smiled. He'd called Maggie when he went out for coffee. She wasn't able to talk long, it was a tough morning at the school, and they'd made plans to meet later that night. He was looking forward to seeing her.

Maggie's morning had started out on a good foot, but had quickly gone downhill when she got to school. One of the aides was out with the flu and she had to pull double duty with the kids. Luckily when Gibbs had called she was alone in the classroom. She could only talk for a minute but knowing she was going to see him later that night gave her something to look forward to. As she was walking from the teachers room back to her classroom after lunch her cell phone rang. It was her brother.

"Hey little brother."

"Got a second to talk?" Tony asked.

"Just one. I'm on my way back to class."

"I'll make it quick then. Do you want to stop by after you finish for the day? I want everyone to meet you?"

Maggie stopped dead in her tracks.

"You can't say no. I'll leave a visitors pass for you at the front desk. I'll see you around 4. Love you." Tony hung up before she could answer.

"Oh shit." Maggie muttered.

She didn't have time to call Gibbs directly so she texted him.

_Tony invited me to work to meet everyone. U okay w/that_

She pressed the send button and went back into her room. If Gibbs said no or didn't respond, she'd find a reason to put it off for a few days. There was no way she was going to blind side Gibbs at work. Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and read his response.

_Ok with me_

Maggie shook her head, she was surprised. She thought Gibbs would say don't or wait or something, but it would be fun to play strangers and see what he was like at work.

"Hi, I'm Maggie Sullivan." Maggie told the officer at the front desk of the NCIS building. "Agent DiNozzo said he'd leave a visitors pass for me."

"All civilians have to be escorted in the building." The officer told her. "If you wait a minute, I'll find someone to bring you up."

"No need Roger. I'll do that."

"Yes Director." The officer replied as Maggie turned around to see a man standing behind her.

"Hi, I heard through the scuttlebutt that you'd be visiting today." The man held his hand out to Maggie. "I'm Director Leon Vance."

Maggie shook the director's hand. "I'm Maggie Sullivan, Anthony DiNozzo's sister."

"I'll take you up." Vance waved his hand in the direction of the elevator. "You know there is quite a buzz about you."

"Really? Why?" Maggie asked as the elevator doors closed.

"Agent DiNozzo never mentioned you, so we were quite surprised to find out you existed."

"That's just how Tony is. I'm sure you've met Senior." Maggie knew from Tony that Senior had been there a few times.

"Mmm." Vance answered as the door opened. "He's quite a character."

"You have no idea." Maggie told him as they walked over to where Tony's desk was.

Maggie did her best to keep calm even though her stomach was filled with butterflies and her heart was pounding. Would she be able to pretend to act like she didn't know Gibbs.

Tony looked up from his desk and was surprised to see Director Vance walking his sister out of the elevator.

"Director?" he stood up and came around the desk to great them.

"Your sister was in the lobby when was coming back in. I thought I'd bring her up." Vance shook Maggie's hand again. "Nice to meet you Mrs. Sullivan."

"Maggie, please."

Vance nodded and left Maggie with Tony.

"You look nice sis." Tony looked at the outfit Maggie had on. "You wear that to school?"

Maggie had gone to school in a pair of khakis, pink button down shirt and sneakers. There was no way she was going to Tony's work dressed like that, so she flew home after work and changed into a nicer blouse and heels. A pinch of her cheeks for color and a spritz of perfume helped too.

"No, I wanted to look nice to meet your friends." She said as Tony put his arm around her shoulders and led her to the bullpen area.

"Here we go." Tony leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Gather around every one, this is my sister. Maggie, this is everyone."

Maggie playfully backhanded Tony in the stomach.

"I think you can do better than that."

Two other people were sitting at desks Maggie noticed. Gibbs was nowhere to be seen. A handsome young man and an exotic looking woman walked over to them.

"You must be Timothy." Maggie held her hand out to McGee. "Nice to put a name and face together."

"Nice to meet you."

"Please call me Maggie." She told McGee.

"Tim, you can call me Tim."

"And I'm Ziva David." The woman held out her hand to Maggie.

Maggie smiled broadly at Ziva.

"You are so much more beautiful than Tony said."

Ziva gave Tony a shocked smile. Tony leaned in and told Maggie to cut it out.

"I wish I could say we knew more about you." Ziva told Maggie. "But Tony's never mentioned you."

"Tony keeps family and work apart."

"We've met your father." McGee told her.

"Did Tony invite Senior or did Senior invite himself." Maggie asked.

Ziva and McGee looked at each other and thought for a minute.

"Well I think he invited himself." McGee finally concluded.

"That explains it all."

"You look very familiar to me." Ziva couldn't place it. But she had seen Maggie somewhere.

"Well I've been here a month." Maggie named some places she'd been but none of them rang a bell with Ziva. "Wait, now I know." Maggie pointed at Ziva. "You run every morning. You wear a bright orange cap."

Ziva snapped her fingers. "That is it. I've seen you running. Usually on the weekends."

"I run mornings on the weekends and after school during the week." Maggie confirmed.

"I did not see you this past Sunday." Ziva commented.

"I went out early. I had some things to take care of." Maggie didn't lie, but she didn't say where she had been.

Ziva looked at Maggie while Maggie, Tony and McGee talked. Maggie clearly must look like her mother, while Tony resembled their father. Maggie had red hair and green eyes, while Tony had brown hair and dark eyes. Tony had mentioned his sister was older, but standing next to him, Maggie could be the same age or even younger.

"Where's Boss?" Tony looked over at Gibbs' desk and Maggie wondered if Gibbs was intentionally making himself scarce.

"Right here DiNozzo."

Maggie heard Gibbs voice behind her and her heart flipped. Ziva happened to be watching Gibbs to confirm her "bounce" theory in Gibbs step and caught Maggie's reaction to Gibbs. She wasn't surprised; Gibbs had that reaction with women Ziva knew. But when Ziva watched Tony introduce Maggie to Gibbs, she saw the look in Gibbs eyes. Was there something there she shouldn't be seeing? Because Maggie's eyes mirrored Gibbs.

"Nice to meet you Maggie." Gibbs shook Maggie's hand. Ziva noticed he held it just a little longer, just a second or two before he let it go.

"Nice to meet you too Agent Gibbs."

"You can call me Jethro."

Tony gave his boss a quizzical look. Gibbs must be getting some from someone because he was being downright cheerful.

"Boss if you can spare me for a few minutes, I'd like to take Maggie down to meet Abs, Ducky and the Autopsy Gremlin."

"Autopsy Gremlin?" Maggie questioned.

"He means Jimmy Palmer." McGee hated when Tony called Palmer that name.

Gibbs nodded and walked around to his desk to sit. "You gonna let your sister keep her coat on the entire time she's here?"

"No Boss." Tony helped Maggie off with her coat and started to bring it and her purse to his desk when Gibbs stopped him.

"Put it here DiNozzo. I'm not going anywhere, it'll be safe here." Gibbs took Maggie's coat and purse from him and draped it over his own. "Go on now. I'm sure Abby's dying to meet your sister."

Ziva watched Tony lead Maggie to the back elevator. McGee went back to work as did Gibbs. But something was different with Gibbs she thought, but she wasn't completely sure.

"You can go with them if you have nothing to do Ziva." Gibbs' voice brought Ziva back to the moment.

"No, I'm almost done here." Ziva got up to bring a folder to the filing cabinet. On her way back she caught Gibbs slipping a note into Maggie's coat pocket. It was a subtle gesture, but Ziva still noticed it.

She sat back down and began to wonder if Gibbs and Maggie had already met. Was Maggie the reason behind the "bounce"? She thought about it for a few moments while she pretended to work on her case. Maggie was clearly Gibbs' type, she was a red head, she was quite pretty and from what Tony had already told her, she was also stubborn. Tony; Ziva realized with some horror- would not like having his sister involved with their boss.

Gibbs fought the urge to go down and check up on Tony and Maggie. He'd checked his watch for the fifth time when he heard the back elevator chime. Tony and Maggie were joined by Abby; whose arm was hooked through Maggie's, and Ducky. Abby and Ducky had their jackets with them. Gibbs knew something was up. Something that may delay him seeing Maggie later on.

"Jethro, we're taking Maggie out for a drink." Ducky began. "Would you please let the team go early tonight? We want to get to know Maggie better."

Gibbs knew he could say no, but Abby had that "Please Gibbs" look on her face and the team was assigned to cold cases this week, what harm could it do?

"Fine, go." He waved them on. "Be on time in the morning."

"You want to come Boss?" Tony asked as he handed Maggie her jacket and purse.

"No, I have to be in MTAC in 30." Gibbs looked at his watch. "I'll take a rain check though." He looked at Maggie and Abby who had put her arm back through Maggie's. Even with heels on, Abby still towered over Maggie. Abby clearly liked Maggie. So it seemed did the rest of his team. He was surprised that knowing his team liked Maggie was important to him.

"Okay then, night Boss." Tony said. "Come McGee, Ziva. To the pub we go."

Gibbs waited fifteen minutes before texting Maggie.

_Want to cancel tonight?_

He waited for Maggie's answer before heading up to MTAC.

_Not on your life._

Gibbs smiled when he read her reply and closed his phone.

"Who you texting? Some new guy?" Tony teased his sister as she put her phone back in her jacket pocket.

"And if it were?" Maggie looked at Tony. "What would you say?"

"I'd say.." Tony thought for a moment. Was she seeing someone? If so who?

"Anthony leave your sister be." Ducky intervened. "Now Maggie, tell us more about young Tony. Where did he get his love for movies?"

"I'll tell you more stories if you let me buy the first round."


	10. Chapter 10

Maggie pulled up in front of Gibbs' house. It was exactly what she would expect Gibbs to live in. From their conversations, she knew he'd bought it when he was married to his first wife. She knew at least one other wife had lived there too. When that wife divorced him, she cleaned out his bank account but let him keep the house. She walked up the stairs and rang the doorbell. She loved the style of the front door, the big glass window in it, even the stained glass window next to the door. She made a mental note of them for ideas for her house.

"Have a good time?" Gibbs asked when he opened the front door.

"Actually I did." She stepped inside the house, stood on her tip toes and kissed Gibbs on the cheek. Gibbs put an arm around her waist and pulled her close.

"Not good enough." He whispered and kissed her fully on the mouth. When he pulled back and moved the shut the door, he paused for a second. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, but let it go when Maggie tugged at his hand.

"Got a beer?" she asked stepping into the living room.

Gibbs walked past her and playfully swatted her on the backside on his way into the kitchen. Maggie took her jacket off and put it on the chair. This was the home of a man still holding on to his past, even if it wasn't that obvious.

"Here ya go." Gibbs handed her a beer and took her hand leading her to the couch. He pulled her down next to him. "So, what do you think of them?"

Maggie took a sip of her beer.

"They are really a great group of people."

Gibbs nodded his head in agreement as he drank his beer.

"They think very highly of you."

"Do I want to know what they said?"

Maggie laughed. "It wasn't an all about Gibbs session. You're name came up, but it was mostly in connection with Tony."

Maggie filled him in on some of the things they had asked her about Tony and growing up, what he was like, where did the movie thing come in.

"He does like his movies." Gibbs agreed. "Is that something you share?"

"Gibbs, did you see a TV in my house?"

"No." He thought for a minute. "Hell even I have one of those."

"Okay, my TV isn't here yet. Let me say that different. Tony loves movies, I love books. Tony tries to get me to see a movie if it was a book and I always argue that the book is better than the movie. The only movie I will cop to getting him hooked on is James Bond."

"And which one is your favorite?" Gibbs pulled her closer so that her legs were resting on his lap.

"Totally Daniel Craig. I have a thing for blue eyes." She told him as she leaned up and kissed him.

"What else do they know about you now that I don't?" Gibbs asked a few minutes later.

Maggie toyed with his fingers as she recalled the conversations from earlier.

"Let's see. They know that after James died, I had to learn all about football because Jamie played and I was never the football person."

"No? Was that James' area?" Gibbs asked. It was comfortable for Maggie to talk about her late husband, something he wasn't very good at; talking about his life with Shannon and Kelly.

"James did all the Pop Warner games and coached when he could. Me, I was the Red Sox fan and took Jamie to home games all the time. If the Yankees were in town, we had third base seats."

"What else?"

"Well they know that I teach, that I love working with the special needs kids. That I love sushi."

"I knew that too." Gibbs admitted.

"And how did you know that? NCIS special agent skills?" Maggie teased.

"You have a sushi set in your cabinet. I saw it this morning when I was looking for coffee mugs."

"Okay, I'll give you that. They know that I am a runner, well Ziva has seen me, and they know that I like to kick box."

"I'll remember that if we get into an argument."

"I'd never use it on you. Self-defense only."

"Yeah well I've had ex-wives that know how to use baseball bats and nine irons." He told her.

"That's just wrong." Maggie told him. "They know how James died and how Tony helped me out a lot with Jamie when things were awkward."

Gibbs gave Maggie a questioning look.

"Jamie was always a good kid, but he was 15 when his father died and during his senior year he acted out here and there. Drinking, driving too fast. Things like that. Because James was a cop, the other cops looked out for him, never charging him, bringing him home to me. Jamie resented it, said that his friends said he was a Mama's boy and it made him angrier. So I told James' old buddies that the next time they caught him drinking or speeding, arrest him. Toss him behind bars for the night; let him see how it felt."

"Did it work?"

"The phone call he made wasn't to me, but to Tony. And let me tell you Tony read him the riot act. Tony made Jamie check in with him every other day about his grades and what he was doing and who he was with."

"Really?"

"I know, it doesn't sound like Tony, but Tony knew how it felt to not have a full time dad around. He wanted Jamie to know that he'd always be there for him no matter what."

Gibbs nodded, that made sense.

"Why did he become a Marine?" Gibbs asked.

"He loved the uniform." Maggie untangled herself from Gibbs and went to pick up her purse. She took out her wallet and withdrew the picture of Jamie in his dress uniform and brought it back to Gibbs. He picked up his glasses from the table and looked at the formal headshot of Maggie's son.

"He looks a lot like Tony." Gibbs noticed the same face shape and familiar nose and mouth.

"Yeah, he got the DiNozzo gene there, but his hair is lighter and he has his father's eyes."

Gibbs handed her back the picture. "What he get from you?"

"My intelligence and amazing cooking ability."

"Trust me;" Gibbs began as he moved her back down on the couch. "You aren't hurting in the looks department."

A half hour later, somewhere around Maggie's blouse ending up on the floor and Gibb's red USMC tee shirt on the coffee table, Maggie felt a buzzing on her hip.

"You're buzzing Gibbs." She told him as his mouth moved down between her breasts.

"Ignore it." He told her, even though he knew he couldn't.

"Well then move over a little to your left and put that vibrating to good use."

Gibbs lifted his head and gave Maggie a 'are you serious' look that made her laugh. He reached into his pocket and flipped the phone open.

"Yeah..Gibbs."

Maggie started to move herself out from under Gibbs, but he wouldn't budge. Maybe this wasn't an urgent phone call.

"I'll be there in 20 minutes. Call the rest of them in." Gibbs flipped his phone shut. He lowered his head back down to where it had been a few seconds ago. He inhaled the scent of Maggie's perfume and filed it in his memory for later.

"You have to go?" Maggie asked as she stroked the back of his head.

Gibbs nodded his head and kissed Maggie at the hollow of her throat before he moved off of her to retrieve his shirt and hand Maggie hers.

Maggie stood up and put her shirt back on.

"It's okay Gibbs. It's part of your job." She told him.

He knew that. He knew that she would understand that too. Her husband had been a cop and she knew that sometimes the job would have to come first. They walked out together, Gibbs walking Maggie to her car parked in front of his house. He opened the door for her and stopped to kiss her before she got into the car.

"Call or text me when you can." She told him when she sat down in the car.

Gibbs nodded and watched her drive off down the street.

The next afternoon, Gibbs and Ziva were sitting in the company car watching the apartment of a suspect in the murder they'd been called in on the previous night. One of their cold cases was no longer so cold. It was quiet in the car, neither person speaking, just watching for their suspect. Gibbs knew that Ziva had something on her mind but was struggling with how to approach it, so he did it for her. He took a sip of his coffee before asking her.

"Why were you outside my house last night?" he asked. When Maggie rang the doorbell he had seen Ziva's red Mini-Cooper pull up in front of the house two doors down. She tried to park in the shadows, but he knew it was her.

Ziva should have been surprised that Gibbs had seen her, but it was Gibbs after all and not too much got past him.

"Why haven't you told Tony you're involved with his sister?"


	11. Chapter 11

The next afternoon, Gibbs and Ziva were sitting in the company car watching the apartment of a suspect in the murder they'd been called in on the previous night. One of their cold cases was no longer so cold. It was quiet in the car, neither person speaking, just watching for their suspect. Gibbs knew that Ziva had something on her mind but was struggling with how to approach it, so he did it for her. He took a sip of his coffee before asking her.

"Why were you outside my house last night?" he asked. When Maggie rang the doorbell he had seen Ziva's red Mini-Cooper pull up in front of the house two doors down. She tried to park in the shadows, but he knew it was her.

Ziva should have been surprised that Gibbs had seen her, but it was Gibbs after all and not too much got past him.

"Why haven't you told Tony you're involved with his sister?" Ziva replied.

Gibbs took another sip of his coffee and stared straight ahead. He turned his answer over in his mind. He didn't like secrets; but if there was an answer to this question it had to be given to Tony first. Gibbs was saved from answering by the arrival of Tony and McGee pulling up behind them. Ziva hadn't expected him to answer but hoped that he would see that keeping this kind of secret wasn't good for them as a team.

"What's up Boss?" Tony asked as he leaned into the driver's side window. Tony looked from Gibbs to Ziva and back. "Anything going on I should know about?"

"Nope. Just keep an eye out for him. Check in later." Gibbs started t he car and Tony walked back to his car. He watched as Gibbs' car took the corner.

"Huh." Tony said out loud.

"Something up?" McGee asked as he checked the battery on the digital camera.

"Something seemed…I dunno, off between Gibbs and Ziva."

"You spend 4 hours in a car with Gibbs, you'd be off too."

"It's not that Probie, it's something else." Tony mused.

"Your sister is pretty cool." McGee said changing the subject. Four hours in the in the car with Tony would be long enough without having a 'what's up with Ziva and Gibbs' debate.

"Yeah, she is isn't she?" Tony agreed.

"How come you never mentioned joining the force because of your brother in law? I thought it was because of the kid you saved in Baltimore from the fire."

"That was the big part of it. When I went up to Boston after that I talked to James about it and he thought it was a good idea. He supported me through the whole thing. He was a great guy." Tony told McGee.

"Maggie never remarried?"

"No. Had a couple of relationships, but the last one didn't end on a happy note."

"Really? What happened?" McGee asked.

"I'm not sure, all I know is she filed a restraining order." Tony stopped talking for a few seconds.

"Something wrong Tony?"

"Do you think Gibbs didn't like Maggie?"

"Why do you think that?" McGee wondered.

"He barely looked at her. She's totally his type."

McGee cut Tony off when their suspect came out of his apartment.

Ziva stood in front of Gibbs' desk, her arms folded across her chest while she waited for him to look up and acknowledge her. Gibbs took his glasses off and looked up at her.

"What."

"You know 'what' Gibbs. You and Maggie. Why are you keeping this a secret from Tony?"

"Who's keeping a secret from Tony?" Abby asked as she walked over from the elevator.

Gibbs didn't need to have this conversation now. He got up from his desk, grabbed his jacket and walked between Abby and Ziva.

"Going out for coffee."

Ziva shook her head and made a comment in Israeli as she walked back to her desk.

"Um, Ziva;" Abby began. "Is everything okay with Gibbs? You seem sort of mad at him."

"No I am not mad Abby, he just.." Ziva couldn't think of how to say what she was feeling. "Sometimes he just infuriates me. That is all."

Gibbs stopped outside of the building, checked the time on his watch to figure out where Maggie would be now. They had spoken earlier and she told him her furniture was coming from Boston today, so she'd be home all night taking care of it.

"You look troubled Jethro. Is there something I can help you with?"

Gibbs looked up from his phone as Ducky walked towards him. If Gibbs was to confide in anyone it would be Ducky. Problem was, Gibbs didn't like to air his problems, not that seeing Maggie was a problem.

"Yeah Duck, maybe you could."

The two men walked over to a bench and sat down. Gibbs leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and thought of where to begin. Ducky could see Gibbs was struggling.

"Let me make it easy for you." Ducky reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled out the folded note Gibbs had slipped in Maggie's jacket and handed it to Gibbs.

"Where'd you get this Duck?"

"It fell out of Maggie's pocket and fortuitously I was the one who found it. How long have you and Maggie been involved?"

Gibbs grinned. If anyone else had seen the note he wrote to Maggie, it would have been embarrassing. Ducky finding it wasn't. Ducky had officiated one of Gibbs' marriages and stitched him up twice when two different wives had gotten aggravated with him.

"We met about a month ago." Gibbs told his friend.

"Did you know who she was?"

Gibbs smiled at the memory of that moment on their first real date. "Nope, not until the end of our first date."

"And there was obviously a second." Ducky commented.

Gibbs nodded.

"And I am guessing that there has been 'more' between you two judging from your note."

Gibbs nodded again.

"Then why the charade? Why did you pretend to not know her when Tony brought her in?"

"Keeping work and life apart."

"Jethro, you know in our line of work that the line is often blurred. How can you two expect to keep Anthony in the dark? He has to be told."

"I know Duck, I know." Gibbs agreed. "I was about to call Maggie and tell her that Ziva found out."

"Ziva knows? Now you have to tell Tony. Ziva won't like keeping a secret from Tony. Not after all they've been through."

"You're right Duck."

Ducky left Gibbs at the bench as Gibbs proceeded to call Maggie. Tonight. They'd tell Tony tonight. Gibbs only hoped that things would be fine in the morning.

Tony was just finishing up the paperwork on the interrogation when his cell phone rang. It was Maggie.

"Sis, how's it going?"

"I made some homemade pasta sauce today." Maggie started the conversation.

"Ooh, the vodka one I like?"

Maggie laughed. "Yeah Tony, the vodka one you like. Can you come over for dinner tonight?"

"I have about an hour left here, will that be good. I'll stop and get some wine."

Gibbs listened from his desk to Tony's conversation. Maggie had agreed that they had better tell Tony. She knew that Gibbs team was important to him and if he had to make a choice, she'd accept whatever happened.

Ziva was still at her desk when Tony left. She and Gibbs were the only two in the bullpen. She was still angry with Gibbs and somewhat with Maggie too. Gibbs grabbed his jacket and turned off his desk light, he stopped for a moment in front of Ziva's desk. Gibbs looked at Ziva and nodded his head before walking to the elevator. Ziva knew that Gibbs and Maggie were going to tell Tony tonight. Ziva wondered if she had any sick time she could use the next day.


	12. Chapter 12

Maggie set three plates on the island counter. The sauce was simmering, the pot of water was just about at a boil and as soon as Tony got there she'd put the pasta in. She was nervous. She kept tucking her hair behind her ear, an easy tell about her nervousness. Instead of give her nervousness away; she pulled her hair back into a pony tail and took a deep breath.

"Woof."

Freckles launched from her bed in the living room to the front door signaling Tony's arrival. Gibbs was going to wait about a half hour before showing up.

"Freck, leave Uncle Tony alone. He's going to have a tough enough time without you jumping on him." Maggie said as she opened the front door.

"And that is why Uncle Tony brought this." Tony moved his hand from behind his back and held out a three foot long raw hide bone. Freckles tail wagged excitedly back and forth at the site of her favorite treat. "Do I just give it to her?"

"Tell her to sit." Maggie instructed her brother.

"Sit."

Freckles sat down in front of Tony.

"Tell her to stay."

"Stay."

Freckles tail stilled and her eyes focused up on Tony's face.

"Tell her she's a good girl and then give her the rawhide."

Tony did exactly as Maggie told him and Freckles took the rawhide from Tony and trotted off to her bed in the living room.

"Not bad Tony." Maggie gave Tony a kiss on the cheek. "Let's go in the kitchen I have to put the pasta on."

"Can I do anything to help?"

"Think you can manage finishing the salad for me?"

"Salad, I can do." Tony pushed up the sleeve of his sweater and washed his hands in the sink. He was drying off his hands when he noticed that there were three plates on the island.

"Jamie coming to dinner?"

"Um, no." Maggie said as she added the pasta to the boiling pot of water.

"Okay then." Tony gave his sister an odd look. "Dad?"

Maggie almost dropped the fork she was using to stir the pasta.

"No. Senior is not coming to dinner. Why would you even suggest that?"

"No need to get snippy." Tony told her. "I was just making a guess. But maybe you could just think about talking to him, calling him, something like that."

"Not going to happen Tony. Let it go."

They were silent in the kitchen for a few moments while Tony moved from the tomatoes to the cucumbers.

"So then," he broke the silence. "Who is the third plate for? Wait." Tony looked up at Maggie who was stirring the pasta sauce. "The dog eats at the table."

Maggie couldn't help but laugh at her brother. Tony wasn't much on confrontations; he had to always find a way to defuse them with humor.

"No, Freckles doesn't eat at the table." Maggie took a deep breath; it was now or never. "I invited someone else."

Tony nodded and smiled. "I knew it. You ARE seeing someone." Tony was pleased with himself. "You want me to meet this guy and give him the big brother stamp of approval."

"No, it's not…"

"It's okay sis. I got this. I can go all stern big brother like….hmm what movie did …"

Maggie cut Tony off.

"Tony, you don't have to DO anything, just let me finish."

"I could be like Gibbs and say nothing, just do the stare. That'll un-nerve him, and I'll see what he's really like."

Maggie pinched the bridge of her nose. She felt the beginnings of a migraine starting. Maggie's head snapped up when she heard the front door open and close, Tony kept on rambling.

"Oh, you should have asked Gibbs to come over, he's good at reading people."

"She already did ask me."

Tony spun around to see Gibbs walking into the kitchen. Gibbs put a six pack of beer on the table and went over to kiss Maggie on the cheek. Tony's mouth hung open as it slowly dawned on him. He looked from Maggie to Gibbs and back to Maggie.

"You two." He pointed from one to the other.

"Yes." Maggie nodded. She watched her brother's reaction.

"How? When?" Tony was confused, they'd just met. Gibbs had rules, which one was it Tony wondered as he tried to sort this all out.

"About a month ago."

Tony thought he'd heard Maggie wrong and repeated what she said.

"Yeah, about a month ago."

Gibbs still hadn't said anything, he watched Tony's reaction. He was Tony's boss and Maggie was Tony's sister. It was a very fine line he and Maggie were walking. He knew that things could go horribly wrong.

"So you were pretending to not know each other when you came to the office e the other day." Tony was beginning to get angry.

"Let me explain." Maggie walked over to Tony who backed away from her towards the kitchen door.

"Explain that the two of you were lying to me and made me look foolish in front of my friends!"

"DiNozzo." Gibbs finally spoke up.

"No, no Boss. You have your rules and I have mine. No lying."

Tony went out the kitchen door and slammed it behind him. He walked across the porch and stopped at the stairs. He was angry. The two of the pretending to not know each other when all this time they'd been seeing each other and God knows doing what else. No, he knew what else; Gibbs had that bounce in his step. They were sharing more than just coffee.

Tony turned around and was about to go back in to tell them exactly how he felt and he stopped in his tracks. Through the window in the kitchen door he could see Gibbs and Maggie standing there. Maggie was facing Gibbs, her face tipped up to his. Gibbs had her face cradled in his hands. Tony watched as his boss kissed Maggie softly on the forehead and then the mouth. And then Tony saw it. He saw the look on Maggie's face. It was a look that he hadn't seen on her face since James was alive. Maggie was happy, truly happy. The kind of happy look you get when you were in love. And Gibbs. Gibbs was smiling. Not the usual lopsided smirk- I know something smirk- that he usually had. This was a full on reach the eyes smile. Gibbs really liked his sister.

"How could I be such a jerk?" Tony asked himself. Hell, he even wondered if he should have fixed Maggie and Gibbs up.

"I'll follow your lead." Maggie told Gibbs. "If you have to put work first, I understand."

"Are you saying you want to stop?" Gibbs tipped Maggie's face up to his. He could see the answer in her eyes.

Maggie shook her head no.

"Good, I would have put up a fight if you said yes." He smiled at her.

Tony stepped back through the door and clapped his hands together.

"Dinner's getting cold Mags. Gibbs, you going to share those beers?"

Maggie and Gibbs watched as Tony grabbed the salad dressing from the refrigerator and brought the salad bowls to the table.

"Tony?" Maggie questioned her brother.

"Mags."

"Are you saying you're okay with us?" Maggie pointed from herself to Gibbs.

Tony sat down and put some salad on his plate while Gibbs poured the pasta into the strainer and put some onto the three plates.

"I'm saying that there can be no more lying." Tony put the bottle of salad dressing down and looked at his sister and Gibbs who were now sitting across from him. "Look, its weird okay. He's my boss and you're my sister. But I'd be an idiot to not see that there is something between you two."

Gibbs twirled the spaghetti on his fork and listened. He knew there was a 'but' coming.

"But, there has to be a line."

"Tony you know that I keep my personal life personal. I know Gibbs feels the same way. And even though you like to tell everyone everything."

"I do not." Tony gave his sister an offended look.

"Edith and the costume." Gibbs said as he chewed his pasta.

"I'm sorry, what?" Maggie almost choked on her salad.

"Never mind." Tony got busy adding cheese to his pasta.

*Boston, Four Seasons Hotel Bar*

Joe Antonelli sat at the end of the polished oak bar. The room was dimly lit as the movers and shakers tried to move and shake big money deals. There were women scattered here and there in the bar all beautifully done up in furs, diamonds and lots of plastic surgery. None of these women interested Joe, not that he was willing to pay for their company. He was interested in one of the men sitting at the table in the middle of the room. He knew the man well even though they've never met. Joe had spent months trying to find out everything he could about this man, in particular where his daughter had gone to. Joe waited for the right time and after watching the man drink several Belvedere Martinis, the distinguished looking man excused himself from the table and went to the rest room. Joe followed discreetly.

"Excuse me sir." Joe said to the man as they stood next to each other at the sinks drying their hands. "Are you Anthony DiNozzo, Sr?"

Senior looked at the man next to him and couldn't place him.

"Yes, I am, have we met before?" Senior asked.

"No, we haven't met, but I've heard all about you."

"All good I hope." Senior smiled his fake smile.

"All good sir." Joe lied.

"Well who told you about me?"

Joe smiled and hoped his months of work would pay off.

"Your daughter, Maggie Sullivan."

Senior was completely surprised at the man's answer.

"Let me explain. I'm an old friend of Maggie's. My name is Joe Antonelli. I've been trying to find her, I heard she moved. Do you happen to know where she moved to?"

Senior smiled again.

"Well yes Joe, I do know. I talked to my son today; they were having dinner tonight at her new home outside of DC."


	13. Chapter 13

"Tony, I can take care of the dishes."

"No, I got it." Tony told Maggie as he carried the glasses to the sink. One slipped from his fingers and crashed to the floor.

Gibbs went to the closet and got the broom and dust pan to sweep up the broken glass. Maggie knew what Tony was trying to do. He didn't want to leave if Gibbs was still there. She watched as Tony went to take the broom from Gibbs, who moved it out of his reach.

"Enough Tony." Maggie finally said.

She went into the living room and took his coat from the chair and handed it to him. "I'm a big girl, you don't need to chaperone."

Tony didn't get a chance to protest as Maggie pulled him to the door and opened it while he put his jacket on.

"Tony, I need you to be honest with me. Are you really okay with this?"

Tony looked over Maggie's shoulder towards the kitchen.

"I don't know Mags. It's just weird that's all. Gibbs is my boss and I don't know if I can keep him being your ….. your…."

"I get it Tony…but you said you want honesty and that has to be a two way street with us." She told her brother.

"Mags let me ask you something. If I had a problem with you and Gibbs, what would you have done? Would you keep seeing him behind my back?"

Maggie reached out to smooth out the front of Tony's jacket.

"No. If it was truly a problem for you personally then it would affect your work. We talked about it. I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize yours and Gibbs' working relationship."

"Even if it hurt you? I can tell that you like him."

"I do."

"And you know all about the wives? All of them?"

"Yes Tony, I know about the three exes' and Shannon and Kelly." She told her brother. Tony was surprised at that admission. Gibbs normally didn't let people in on his first wife and daughter.

"Look, I'm going to try. It's not going to be easy, but I'll try. It's just thinking about you and him…well you know." Tony made a face.

"Then don't think about my sex life."

"I agree with that. I don't want you thinking about that either." Gibbs joined them at the doorway.

"Okay then. I'll see you in the morning …" Tony stopped before saying Boss. Gibbs just nodded his head and Maggie kissed her brother on the cheek.

"I'll talk to you soon."

Gibbs let Freckles out into the yard while he took the trash out. Maggie was putting the last of the dishes in the dishwasher. Gibbs sat on the top step of the back porch waiting for the dog to finisher her nightly inspection of the yard. He liked this house, the feeling of it. Hearing Maggie in the kitchen opening and closing cabinets. He felt comfortable there. This house had the feeling of a home, his house was a house filled with memories. The only time he slept in his bed was when he had company. Most nights he slept on the couch or on the cot in the basement when he was working on something. He hadn't changed anything in the house. Whatever his ex-wives brought into the house when they lived there, they took with them.

"Hey, what's with the face?" Maggie asked when she sat down next to him. "Kind of cold out here don't you think?"

Gibbs took the coffee mug she was holding and took a sip of it.

"That one's mine, yours is in the house."

"Wanna share?" he grinned at her and handed her back the mug.

"You having second thoughts about all of this? Telling Tony? About me?"

Gibbs put his arm around Maggie and pulled her close to him.

"No, no second thoughts. Just thinking that this may be hard, keeping things separate."

"It might be but we'll…"

"Cross those bridges when we come to them." Gibbs finished for her. "I should be going."

"Really?" Maggie was surprised. She had hoped he'd stay.

"Your brother parked his car down the street."

"He did not." Maggie started to get up and go confront Tony.

Gibbs pulled her back to sit down.

"We have to give him time."

Ziva got to work early. She had only thought about not coming in for only a brief second. Tony had always been there for her; she could only do the same. She had even stopped to get him his favorite jelly donuts.

"You expecting someone?" McGee asked from his desk when he saw Ziva look over her shoulder for the third time. She was beginning to make him nervous.

"Tony is late. That is all."

"You brought him donuts." McGee commented while he worked at his computer.

"I brought you coffee as well." Ziva didn't want to look obvious by just giving something to Tony.

When the elevator bell chimed she looked over her shoulder to see a smiling Tony step out of the elevator. He was smiling broadly.

"You are certainly in a fine mood this morning." Ziva commented. "I take it you had a good dinner with Maggie?"

Maybe Gibbs and Maggie hadn't told Tony. But before either of them could continue their conversation, Gibbs came around the corner.

"McGee, do you have that address?" Gibbs called out.

"Right here boss."

"Ziva, you and Tony go check this out."

"What is it Boss?" Tony took the paper from Gibbs before Ziva could get it.

"Suspects alibi, I don't buy it. Go see what you can turn up."

Gibbs turned his attention back to McGee and what he was doing while Tony and Ziva went to the elevator. Tony was quiet while they rode down to the elevator and went out to get their car.

"Your mood has changed Tony. You do not seem so happy go likely any longer."

"Happy go lucky and I'm fine Ziva."

Tony pulled the car out of the NCIS parking lot and started in the direction of the address.

"You brought me donuts this morning."

"Yes I did."

Tony was quiet for a few minutes.

"How long have you known?"

Ziva looked over at Tony. "Since the night we went out for drinks. I followed Maggie when she left."

Tony swerved the car to the side of the road and slammed on the breaks.

"You followed my sister? Why in the hell would you follow my sister?"

"It is not what you think Tony."

"What is it then?"

"When she left the bar she was going in the wrong direction, I was worried. She is new in town. And then I realized she was in Gibbs' neighborhood."

"And?"

"She went to Gibbs house and I saw them kiss. I realized that they knew each other and had pretended not to when you introduced them."

Tony put the car into drive and continued on.

"So you know?" Ziva asked.

"Last night. Maggie told me at dinner. Well, she invited Gibbs and I figured it out."

"How do you feel about this?"

Tony shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm not sure yet. It's complicated."

Ziva nodded in

*Boston*

"I'll be happy to go with you. I'm sure Maggie will be surprised." Joe hung up the phone with Anthony DiNozzo Sr.

"Maggie will be more than surprised." Joe said as he looked back down at the gun he had just finished cleaning.


	14. Chapter 14

Sitting on the couch in Gibbs' house Maggie leaned against Gibbs with her back to him, his arms wrapped around her and a bowl of popcorn in her lap. 'Pride of the Yankees' starring Gary Cooper was playing on the television, Freckles was curled up sleeping in front of the fireplace.

"You know the only reason I'm watching this is because it's about Lou Gehrig right?" Maggie told Gibbs.

"You hate the Yankees that much?" Gibbs teased her.

"Honey, I'm a Boston Red Sox fan through and through."

"And if I said I was a Yankee fan?"

Maggie turned to look at Gibbs and with the straightest face she could manage.

"Then I'd say no more popcorn for you mister."

Maggie moved the bowl of popcorn away from Gibbs as he tried to reach for it. Maggie moved far enough away until she was stretched out across the couch. Gibbs grabbed the popcorn bowl with one hand and pinned her to the couch with the other. His hand hit the right place on her side and she started laughing.

"You're ticklish?" Gibbs was surprised. How had he not known this?

"Nope, I'm not." Maggie tried to squirm out of his reach, but now that Gibbs knew her weak spot, he went after it full force.

"Stop…" Maggie laughed as she tried to get away from him. But what started as simple tickling had moved onto something a little more. Gibbs' hands moved under her sweatshirt and they started kissing.

"And this is why you need to lock your door."

Gibbs moved up and pulled Maggie with him while Freckles started barking at the person who just woke her from her car chasing dream.

"You could have called Tobias." Gibbs told his friend.

"I didn't think you'd have company. And can you call the dog off."

Gibbs whistled and Freckles walked over and sat down in front of him. She was rewarded with a scratch behind the ears.

Fornell walked over and reached his hand out to shake Maggie's.

"Your boyfriend lacks manners."

"No I don't." Gibbs countered.

"I'm Tobias Fornell. You have to be Maggie. I've heard a lot about you."

"Nice to finally meet you too Tobias."

"So he does talk about me." Fornell said to Maggie.

"Help yourself." Gibbs commented as Fornell scooped up some popcorn from the bowl.

"I will. Do you have any more beers?"

Gibbs gave Fornell a the 'hello, you were interrupting here' look, but Tobias either didn't see it or was enjoying annoying Gibbs.

"You can have a beer on one condition." Maggie told Fornell. "Are you a Yankee fan?"

Fornell smiled at her over his shoulder as he walked to the kitchen. "Cubbies all the way."

Maggie closed her eyes and shook her head. Gibbs pulled her close and kissed her on the side of the head. "He's not all bad, took one alimony away from me."

Gibbs could have kicked Fornell out, he was intruding, but it was nice to see how well Maggie and Fornell got along. They watched the rest of the movie together and discussed baseball, no shop talk at all. Maggie got up to take Freckles out to the back yard; Gibbs caught Fornell checking Maggie out.

"Hey." Gibbs snapped.

Fornell smiled. "I'm human Gibbs and she's attractive. She a runner?"

Gibbs stood and took Fornell's beer from him.

"Time for you to go."

Fornell knew he'd pushed the jealousy button on Gibbs and liked the reaction.

"Worried I'm going to steal wife number 5?"

"Nope." Gibbs smirked. "I gave you number 2 you can't have number 5."

The statement was out before he'd realized it. Fornell caught it and just smiled knowingly at his friend before walking out the door. This time Gibbs locked the door. He knew what he'd said, the fact that he'd said it out loud surprised him.

"Tobias gone?" Maggie asked when she came back into the living room.

Gibbs nodded and pulled her into his embrace.

"Dog have water?" he asked her.

Gibbs had bought small bowls for the dog to have at his place for the nights that Maggie stayed there. He'd even gone as far as buying a smaller bag of Freckles food and some treats to keep in his kitchen. Gibbs liked having the dog there. Freckles favorite resting space besides in front of the fireplace was the landing in the basement. If Gibbs was down in the basement working, Freckles would be down on the landing watching what he was doing. Maggie liked kidding Gibbs that he'd stolen Freckles affections with his belly rubs.

Maggie stood on her tip toes and slid her arms around Gibbs' neck.

"Bed time?" she smiled at him.

"Thought you'd never ask." He grinned back.

Ziva clipped on the visitors pass and followed the secretary's directions down to Maggie's classroom. A young boy walked out of the room and saw her. He smiled at her and stuck his hand out to her.

"Hi. I'm Hando." He reported. "Who are you?"

Ziva couldn't help but smile at the boy. His infectious grin showed he had lost his front teeth but one was coming back in. Ziva remembered knew that Maggie taught children who had different levels of autism. She reached out and shook his hand.

"Hando. What are you doing?"

Maggie stepped out of the classroom and was surprised when she saw Hando and Ziva shaking hands.

"Hi Ziva." Maggie said. "Is everything okay?"

"Miss Maggie, is this your friend?" Hando inquired as he moved from shaking Ziva's hand to holding it.

"Alejandro, this is my friend Ziva. She works with my brother Tony."

"Can Ziva come and have snack with me?" Hando smiled at his teacher. "I have peanut butter crackers; do you like peanut butter crackers Ziva?"

"I love peanut butter crackers." Ziva smiled at the young boy.

"Hando, why don't you go set up your snack, we'll be right in."

Hando let go of Ziva's hand and got his lunch box out of his cubby before going back into the classroom.

"I am sorry to bother you at school Maggie. I looked for you this morning when I was running." Ziva started.

"I ran last night. I had to be here early, flu season and I wanted to clean the room." Maggie told her. "Is something wrong with Tony?"

"No, Tony is fine. I came to apologize."

"For?" Maggie wondered.

"The night we met, I followed you and I.." Ziva hesitated.

"You know about me and Gibbs."

Ziva looked surprised.

"Gibbs told me."

"You are not mad at me?" Ziva wondered.

"Why would I be mad? You must have had your reasons for following me."

"I did. I saw you going the wrong direction and when you drove into Gibbs neighborhood I put that together with the note I saw him slip into your coat pocket…"

"What note?" Maggie asked.

"Come on Ziva, snack is ready." Hando came out and took Ziva by the hand back into the room.

"Is it okay?" Ziva whispered.

Maggie nodded her head and followed them into the room.

"You mentioned Tony. Does he come to the school to visit?" Ziva asked when Maggie sat down at the table with them.

"Coach Tony?" Hando said with his mouth full of crackers.

"Hando, chew first then talk." Maggie reminded her student.

"Tony comes by once a week and coaches basketball." Maggie continued when Ziva looked confused. "This school has an afterschool program where the kids can learn a sport. Tony comes by and teaches them basketball. The boys love him."

"Well he is a big kid himself after all." Ziva smiled.

"Whaddya got for me Abs?" Gibbs asked Abby as he walked into her lab.

"Mass Spec just told me that the substance we found on the dead guys shoes is the same that was found at the suspects work."

Gibbs gave Abby his usual kiss on the cheek for good work.

"Oh and Gibbs." Abby called to him before he walked out of the lab.

"Yeah Abs." Gibbs stopped at the door.

Abby smiled at him. "I approve."

Gibbs gave her a confused look.

"Approve of what?" he asked.

"Of you and Maggie. I like her a lot."

"Didn't know I needed approval." Gibbs responded.

"Well you have mine." Abby made a shooing gesture with her hands. "Now go, I have work to do."

Gibbs shook his head as he stepped into the elevator. As the doors shut, he took a sip of his coffee and smiled.

Joe sat in his rented SVU across the street from Maggie's school. He'd sat outside her house last night and followed her to another house where she spent the night. He fought the urge to go into that house and drag her cheating lying ass out of the house after he beat the shit out of the guy she was fooling around with. But he calmed himself. He'd been planning this for over a month, he wasn't going to screw things up now. He waited all night and watched the house. He followed her back to her house where she dropped off the mutt and then went to work. He checked his watch and knew she had an hour before she'd be leaving for home. Putting the car into gear, he left the school and went to make sure everything was ready.


	15. Chapter 15

McGee paced outside of MTAC, waiting patiently for Gibbs and Tony to come out. He looked back down into the bullpen where Ziva was buying McGee some time. This was not good. His gut was screaming something was wrong and when Gibbs and Tony found out, all hell was going to break loose.

"McGee." Gibbs stated when he came out of the steel door.

"Boss," McGee began. "We have a problem."

Gibbs stopped and turned to face McGee and waited for him to continue. McGee just tipped his head in the direction of the bullpen. Gibbs leaned over to see what McGee was gesturing at. He closed his eyes and cursed quietly.

"What's going on Probie?" Tony asked as he joined McGee and Gibbs at the railing. "Oh crap, this can't be good."

"Junior!"

Tony looked over at Gibbs who was staring down at Anthony Sr. who was talking to Ziva.

"What is my father doing here?" Tony asked no one in particular.

"My thoughts exactly." Gibbs walked behind his two agents and down the stairs.

"Gibbs, how are you?" Senior asked happily. "McGee, I wondered where you ran off to in such a hurry. Ah, and Junior. Perfect. Where is she?"

"Where is who?" Tony asked his father.

"Maggie?"

Gibbs head shot up from the paper he was pretending to read at his desk.

"Why would Maggie be here?" Tony wanted to know.

"They were supposed to meet me here."

"Dad, what are you talking about? Who is 'they'?" Tony's gut was starting to panic.

"Maggie and her boyfriend."

Tony and Ziva both looked at Gibbs. McGee was even more confused as to why Ziva and Tony were looking at Gibbs.

"Dad, who are you talking about?" Tony said cautiously. There was no way his father knew about Gibbs and Maggie..

"I met Maggie's boyfriend up in Boston. Joe Antonelli, nice guy by the way. He said he and Maggie had an argument before she left Boston and she wouldn't tell him where she was moving too. We took the train down together. He was going to pick her up and we were all going to go out to dinner." Senior said in a voice that showed he was so pleased with himself.

Gibbs was already dialing Maggie's cell phone. She had mentioned this guy Joe to him. He knew that whatever Joe was now he was not her boyfriend and if he was in town, Maggie was in trouble.

"Boss?" Tony called from his desk.

"No answer." He handed McGee his cell phone. "McGee, see if you can find where she is."

"On it boss." McGee answered even though he was confused.

"Tony, take Senior to the conference room." Gibbs looked at his watch. "Call Maggie's school and see if she's still there."

Gibbs followed Tony and his father to the conference room.

"Ziva, why is Gibbs so upset." McGee asked.

"You do not know?" Ziva was surprised.

"Know?"

"Maggie's boyfriend is not this Joe person, she is dating Gibbs."

McGee's mouth hung open.

"Tell me everything from the beginning Dad." Tony was saying as Gibbs came into the room.

Senior sat down in one of the chairs and looked from his son to Gibbs.

"Something is wrong. I can tell by the looks on your faces." Senior stammered.

"Dad, Maggie does have a boyfriend, but it's not Joe Antonelli."

"Joe's not her boyfriend?"

Gibbs stood by the door, his hands clenching into fists. He was trying to keep his calm, but it was quickly sliding away.

"Dad, focus." Tony handed his father a cup of water. "How do you know Joe Antonelli?"

Senior sipped his water before he answered.

"I ran into him at a hotel in Boston. He came up to me and introduced himself as Maggie's former boyfriend. Told me they'd had a falling out and he wanted to find her and repair things between them. He seemed like such a nice guy. Really in love with her."

"Dad, Maggie had a restraining order against the guy. He was part of the reason she left Boston, to get away from him."

"You haven't had anything to do with your daughter in years and suddenly you're playing matchmaker and bringing this guy to D.C.?" Gibbs fumed from the door.

"How do you know how long it's been since I've seen Maggie?" Senior demanded.

Gibbs closed the distance from the door to the table in two steps and slammed his hands down on the table. "Because I'm Maggie's boyfriend and I know exactly how she feels about you."

Ziva hung up the phone. "Gibbs is not going to like this."

"Like what Ziva." Gibbs responded as he came back from the conference room.

"I spoke to the school. Maggie left over two hours ago and there is no answer on her house phone." Ziva looked up to see Tony and an obviously worried Senior walking from the conference room.

"Maybe she went running?" Ziva offered. "I did not see her this morning running and she told me if she does not run in the morning then she runs after school."

"Her cell phone says she is at home." McGee turned the map on the plasma screen showing Maggie's cellphone gps location.

Gibbs grabbed his gun and badge from his desk as well as his jacket and keys and took off for the elevator. The rest of the team stood up as well and grabbed their stuff. Gibbs stopped and looked at them.

"We are coming with you. If something has happened to Maggie you will need us." Ziva walked past Gibbs into the elevator followed by McGee, Tony and Senior.

Gibbs pressed the button to close the doors and hoped that the worst he would find is that Maggie was in the garage working on something.

Maggie felt like she was trapped in a nightmare. She opened her eyes and tried to focus. Her hands and feet were bound and there was duct tape across her mouth. She tried to figure out where she was. The sudden lurching movement told her she was in a truck of some kind with a tarp over her. How did she get there? Slowly it came back to her. She was just getting back to her house from her run, she was pacing the length of her driveway to bring her heart rate down. Freckles kept trying to pull away from her. A sound by the garage caught her attention. She looped Freckles leash to the porch railing and went to investigate.

"Hello Bitch." Was all she heard before something hard came down on her head.


	16. Chapter 16

Gibbs' car screeched to a halt in front of Maggie's house. His gut was screaming now. Something was most definitely wrong. McGee and Ziva followed Gibbs up to Maggie's front door. It was locked. Tony and Senior arrived in a second car.

"Dad, stay here. DO NOT move." Tony warned him.

Moving cautiously around the side of the house, they walked by Maggie's car. Gibbs felt the hood and it was cold.

"Boss." McGee said quietly and pointed toward the steps leading up to the back porch.

A pink nylon leash was hanging from the post, the end clearly chewed off. Gibbs picked up the edge and examined it. Freckles had chewed herself free from the leash so frantically that there were traces of blood on it.

A noise came from the side of the garage. All four agents drew their weapons. Gibbs and McGee went in one direction, Ziva and Tony in the other. They slowly moved around the garage. The sound came again closer to Gibbs and McGee. Gibbs pointed to the garbage cans located on their side of the garage.

"Federal officers, show yourself." Gibbs yelled.

Slowly Freckles front paws moved out from behind the garbage cans. Gibbs holstered his gun and moved over to the dog who was now whining.

"Who did this to her?" McGee said as he put his weapon away and moved the garbage cans for Gibbs to get closer to the dog.

The right rear leg of the dog was covered in blood. Gibbs touched it gingerly making the dog cry out. Someone had shot the dog.

"Call the local LEOs and get Ducky. Palmer worked as a vet, he'll know where to take the dog." Gibbs picked the dog up carefully and carried her out to the back yard and placed her down.

"Gibbs. Over here." The sun had begun to go down so Ziva used her flash light to shine into the bushes on the side of the garage. Gibbs saw Maggie's cell phone and there was blood on it.

Maggie didn't know how long she had been in the vehicle. Whoever had taken her was being very quiet. She couldn't hear a radio or even the sound of blinkers when a corner was taken. She wiggled her hands and tried to free them. But whoever took her used police type zip ties on her hands and feet. She moved her body back and forth to see if her phone was still in her pocket, but she couldn't feel it. She was scared and all she could think of was would Gibbs find out she was gone. Would he find her.

"Gibbs." Vance tried to get through to his agent. "Gibbs, look at me."

Gibbs was looking down at Maggie's phone which was now in an evidence bag. Because Maggie was the family member of an agent, Leon Vance had used his pull and taken over the case from the LEOs. But there had to be a condition. Neither Gibbs nor Tony could be involved. They had to step back.

"I'm not going to recuse myself." Gibbs snapped.

"Not asking you to do that Gibbs." Vance informed him. "But you are going to let someone else take lead."

Gibbs put the phone back on the table and squared his shoulders while looking Vance straight in the eyes. Tony couldn't take lead and McGee and Ziva weren't qualified.

"Who." Gibbs demanded.

"Me."

Gibbs and Vance turned to see Fornell coming around Ziva's desk.

"Not an FBI case." Gibbs stated.

"It's a kidnapping that may or may not go over state lines." Fornell began. "And she is family of a federal agent. Tony's not Navy."

"He's NCIS." Gibbs reminded him.

"Which makes him a federal agent and I'm taking lead." Fornell knew it wasn't going to be easy. "Meeting." He ordered Gibbs to follow him to their regular meeting place.

Gibbs followed Fornell to the elevator in the back. When they stepped in and pressed the basement level to go see Abby, Fornell flipped the stop switch and the elevator stopped. Fornell turned to face Gibbs who was staring straight ahead.

"Jethro, let me do my job. I won't leave you out, but you have to let me take the lead on this."

Fornell looked at his friend for a long moment. Gibbs looked tired. Tired and scared. Gibbs would never say it out loud, but he was scared for Maggie. Taking a deep breath, Gibbs finally turned to face Fornell.

"Completely in the loop." Gibbs stated. "Nothing kept from me."

Fornell nodded and turned the elevator switch back on.

"Where's DiNozzo?" Fornell inquired.

"Keeping his father as far away from me as possible." Gibbs grunted.

"What the hell made him tell this guy where Maggie lived?"

"I have no idea." Gibbs answered as they stepped out of the elevator in front of Abby's lab.

"Gibbs." Abby called out as she ran over and hugged her boss tight. "It'll be all right. We'll find her."

Gibbs didn't respond as he untangled himself from Abby.

"What do we have?" Gibbs asked.

Fornell cleared his throat to remind Gibbs who was in charge. Abby looked at Gibbs questioningly and then turned to Fornell.

"The blood on the phone is Maggie's." Abby began telling Fornell as she watched Gibbs out of the corner of her eye. "McGee…"

"Is right here." McGee answered as he walked into the lab carrying Maggie's cell phone.

"McGee and I are going to try something with Maggie's phone."

"What." Fornell asked.

"Maggie wore a special running watch." McGee began. "She showed it to me the night we went out. It's like a mini-iPod that plays music and tracks where she runs and how far and …"

"McGee." Gibbs stopped the young agent from rambling on.

"And Boss, if she was out running tonight, then she'll have the watch on."

"And." Fornell added.

"Well if she has the watch on there is a gps in it and hopefully it will tell us where she is."

"Gibbs, did you check her house to see if she had it on?"

"I know what it looks like Boss, I can go check." McGee offered.

"Hell Tobias, we don't even know if she was out running. She could have just been walking the dog."

Abby mumbled something under her breath.

"Did you have something to add Miss Sciuto?" Fornell asked.

"I can't believe the dirt bag shot the dog." She answered.

"How is the dog?" Gibbs had put the dog in the back of his mind. Once Palmer came to the house he took the dog to autopsy to dig the bullet out. Gibbs hoped that was the only bullet that this guy had shot.

"Dog is fine." Jimmy Palmer said as he came into the lab carrying the specimen jar with the bullet he removed from the dog. "Bullet did minimal damage, but she's still sedated."

"Don't worry Gibbs, I'll stay with Freckles." Abby told him.

Gibbs walked over to Palmer and took the bullet from him. He held it up to look at it. Fornell took it away from him and handed it to Abby.

"Gibbs, take Ziva, go over to Maggie's and see if the watch thingy McGee needs is at her place. It wouldn't be at yours would it?"

McGee and Abby froze, Palmer looked confused. While the team knew about Gibbs and Maggie's relationship, no one ever brought it up to Gibbs.

"No. I know the watch you're talking about, but she didn't have it on the last time she was at my place, so it wouldn't be there."

"Go. Get Ziva and see if you can find out if she was out running." Fornell gave Gibbs a gentle nudge to the door. "We've got things covered here. There's a BOLO out on Antonelli and my agents are questioning the neighbors."

Reluctantly Gibbs left to get Ziva.

McGee waited until he heard the elevator bells ding.

"You know we really don't need Gibbs and Ziva to look for the watch." McGee asked Fornell.

"We know where she runs, we can check the traffic cams in the area." Abby added.

"And you will. I needed Gibbs to do something and he needed to do something. And Ziva can keep an eye on him and stop him from heading off on his own."

McGee nodded and brought up the traffic cams around the route where Maggie ran.

Maggie struggled to open her eyes. When the truck finally stopped, her silent captor opened the back door and lifted the corner of the tarp covering her. She tried to kick out at him but he was strong and pinned her feet back down and she felt the sharp prick of a needle and the world faded to black again. She knew she was no longer in the truck. The surface she was lying on was softer and she sensed she was inside now. Where ever she was, there was heat on and she could hear the sound of rain hitting a metal roof. Her hands and feet were still bound and her mouth still covered with duct tape. Whatever her captor had used to knock her out was making her have a hard time focusing. Slowly the world around her came into focus.

She could tell she was in a room of some kind of basement room. The windows were high in the wall and covered with dirt and grime. Very little outside light made it through the window. The only other light in the room was a bare bulb hanging from a cord in the ceiling. The only other furnishings in the room were a chair in the far corner and up in the corner of a room, a video camera with a red light blinking on it telling her someone was watching her.

The door suddenly opened up and Maggie blinked at the bright light shining into the room, keeping her captors identity hidden.

"Hello Princess." The voice hissed.

Maggie realized that Joe Antonelli was her captor.


	17. Chapter 17

When they got to Maggie's house, an FBI agent was standing on the front porch waiting for them.

"Special Agent Gibbs, Agent Fornell asked me to give these to you. He said you would be searching the house."

The agent in the blue FBI windbreaker handed Gibbs Maggie's keys. Gibbs looked down at them in his hand. The was two house keys, one for the front and one for the back, a key to the garage door, her car key and a bunch of those little cards that stores used to get your business. He teased her when he saw how many she had already accumulated since she'd moved down here.

"Do you need anything else sir?" the agent asked.

"We are fine. Thank you." Ziva began as Gibbs moved past the agent and unlocked the door. "Have you finished talking to the neighbors yet?"

"Yes ma'am. We have a description and partial plate on the vehicle and we called it in to Agent McGee."

Gibbs didn't comment so Ziva thanked the agent and followed Gibbs into Maggie's home.

"I will go look for the sneakers. I believe I know what they look like." Ziva informed Gibbs. Before they left the office, Vance told Ziva to keep an eye on Gibbs, he was being too quiet and Vance worried Gibbs would go off on his own.

"So you took his word at face value?" Fornell asked Senior as they sat in the conference room going over every detail from the first conversation to the last that Senior had with Joe.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because Dad, you and Maggie haven't had any contact in years." Tony snapped. He wanted to be out in the bullpen running down leads, but Vance told him he had to stay with his father.

"Why haven't you and your daughter spoken in so long?" Fornell asked.

"Is that really important? Is that going to help you find Maggie?" Senior questioned.

"It may explain how Antonelli used you to find her." Fornell urged.

"My daughter doesn't think very highly of me." Senior began. "And our relationship has been strained through the years."

"To say the least." Tony said under his breath as he paced by the windows.

"Junior." Senior warned.

"Dad, a total stranger comes up to you in a fancy hotel bathroom and knows who you are. That doesn't sound funny to you."

"I've met lots of people I can't remember. He knew I was Maggie's father so I just assumed…"

"And what do you always say about assuming. It makes an ass out of you and me."

Fornell slammed his hand on the table to get their attention.

"So Antonelli knew you were at this hotel and he approached you in the bathroom. What happened next."

"As you can imagine, I haven't heard much from Maggie since her husband died and Joe filled me in on how they had dated and had a falling out and he wanted to set things straight between them and offered to help bring us together."

Tony snorted. "And that's something I couldn't have done."

"Would you? Would you have tried to bring Maggie and me back together. At least get her to talk to me?"

"Dad, after everything you've done, do you really think it would be that easy to solve."

"DiNozzos focus please." Fornell was getting impatient. "What happened after that?"

"Well I knew that Maggie was in the DC area because of Junior."

"Don't you dare try to turn this on me." Tony warned his father.

"I'm not. But if you hadn't mentioned it I wouldn't have known would I?" Senior told him. "I gave Joe the number of the hotel I was staying at and he said he'd be in contact with me. I didn't hear from him for about a week or so and then he called and said he'd arranged transportation down to DC for us and when we got here I checked into a hotel and he said he had some business to take care of."

"Did he say what that business was?" Fornell questioned.

"No. I didn't hear from him again until earlier today and he told me to meet him here."

"I never gave you Maggie's address Dad. I only told you she lived in the DC area." Tony reminded his father.

"Wouldn't have been hard to find after that DiNozzo." Fornell told Tony. "Maggie wasn't trying to hide."

Gibbs stood in the doorway of Maggie's bedroom. His mind flooded with images of Maggie in this room. Together they had managed to paint her room and he had helped her gut out the small closet and make it bigger. He walked over to the bed and picked up a scarf she had left on the bottom of it. He brought it to his nose and inhaled her perfume. On the nightstand next to the side of the bed she slept on was her Kindle thingy that she used to read. He had teased her about using a mini computer to read a book when there was nothing better than a real book that you turned the pages and could dog ear the corners.

He walked over to her bureau. On its top was a framed picture of her son as a baby and one of her and Tony when they were little. There was a small silver bowl where she put her jewelry that she wore every day. The only thing in it was her every day silver watch. Gibbs' eyebrows furrowed together. Her little wooden jewelry box was missing. She could have brought it out to the garage to fix; she had mentioned wanting to touch it up.

Ziva looked in the kitchen, foyer and back porch and could not find Maggie's running sneakers. She knew they would not be there. McGee had texted her to say they had seen images of her running her normal route when they searched the traffic cams. So if Maggie had been running she had her watch on and maybe they could track her.

She decided to double check the downstairs to see if the FBI agents had missed anything. The kitchen seemed undisturbed. There was a coffee mug in the sink from this morning and Maggie's purse and school bag were on the island. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary there. Ziva was just about to go into the living room when the front door burst open making Ziva draw her weapon.

"Mom!"

Gibbs heard the yell coming from down stairs and ran down from the bedroom.

"Stop. Federal agents." Ziva advanced from the kitchen, her weapon drawn. "Who are you?"

"Lance Corporal Jamie Sullivan. This is my mother's house. Who are you?"

Gibbs came down the stairs and told Ziva to stand down.

"Lance Corporal Sullivan, I'm Special Agent Jethro Gibbs and this is Agent Ziva David."

"Sir." Jamie looked at Gibbs. "You're the man my mother is dating?"

"Yeah, I am." Gibbs shook the young man's hand. Gibbs could see so much of his mother in Jamie and Tony too in the way he carried himself.

"Agent Gibbs," Jamie began.

"Please, just Gibbs."

"Gibbs, what is going on? The FBI showed up on base and my CO told me that my mother had been kidnapped."

"Come in the kitchen and sit down." Gibbs caught himself before he said 'son'. "Want something to drink? I know your mother keeps the soda hidden in the back of the fridge."

"Her secret stash." Jamie smiled wanly at his mother's not so secret stash. "Gibbs, the FBI didn't say much beyond she was kidnapped. Please tell me what is going on."

"Gibbs, I'm going to talk to the agents about the interviews." Ziva said placing two Cokes on the table and leaving to give Gibbs and Jamie a few moments.

"Your mother was kidnapped earlier tonight by a man named Joe Antonelli. Have you heard of him?"

"Heard of him? Hell yes." Jamie stopped himself. "Sorry sir…Gibbs. Antonelli dated my mother and when she ended it with him he began stalking her."

"She told me that she had a restraining order out on him and that he would open her mail and accuses her of cheating on him."

"That man was…I can't even think of a word to call him." Jamie admitted.

"Oh I can." Gibbs smirked. "Tell me about him."

"I don't know how they met, but they went out a few times and when I met him I didn't like him automatically. Something in my gut told me he was no good."

"Trust your gut huh?"

"Yes sir. Hasn't done me wrong yet."

"What did Antonelli do for a living?" Gibbs asked.

"Not sure, I think he was in construction. He didn't have a lot of money but he liked to brag about his connections."

"Mob?"

Jamie shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. But the guy had a temper and if he was drinking it was even worse."

Gibbs gritted his teeth. "Did he ever get violent with your mother?"

"She never said outright, but one night, the last night she went out with him she came home and I could tell something was wrong. She was favoring her neck and kept it covered up like she was trying to hide something from me. It was after that she dumped him. Then the stalking started."

"That when she got the restraining order?"

"Yeah. Joe started following her everywhere she went. He'd be outside the house at night, calling from his cell at all hours. If Mom talked to a guy, even if it was the just the UPS guy, he'd say she was being a slut and cheating on him."

Gibbs nodded.

"The restraining order didn't work, if it said he had to stay 300 yards away, he'd follow her at 301 yards. My dad's old cop buddies did what they could. If Mom started dating someone else, Joe would start harassing the guy until he chased him off."

"So when you got transferred down here…" Gibbs started.

"I told her to move down too. Uncle Tony is here and her friends all hated Joe so no one would tell her where she went. She even sold the house with most of the furnishings in it so she wouldn't have to hire a moving company that he could bribe."

Gibbs smirked; Maggie was smart.

"Gibbs, are we going to find her?"

"Yeah. We'll find her." He only hoped that this nutjob Antonelli wouldn't do anything to hurt her.


	18. Chapter 18

"Joe." Maggie croaked out after he ripped the duct tape off her mouth "Why? What do you want from me?"

Joe ran his fingers down the side of Maggie's face, down her neck and down the front of her chest making her nauseous. His fingers stopped on the zipper of her running jacket and he tugged it down until it was completely unzipped. Underneath her running jacket all she had on was a tank top and sports bra.

"Your new boyfriend let you go out running dressed like this? He knows you only wear things like this to make other men crazy? Just like you did when we were together?"

When Maggie didn't answer, Joe reached up quickly and squeezed her neck with his hand.

"Answer me bitch. Does he know what you're really like?"

Maggie couldn't breathe, his fingers were squeezing her as she fought to get air into her lungs. He suddenly let go and slapped her hard across the face. Maggie started coughing as she tried to breathe again. Before she could say anything else, Joe got up and left the room slamming the door behind him and Maggie heard him lock the other side.

"Anything new?" Gibbs asked as he walked back into the bullpen with Jamie following him.

"Jamie?" Tony was startled to see his nephew walking behind Gibbs. He got up and hugged Jamie then put his hands on Jamie's shoulders. "We'll find this bastard, don't worry."

"I'm not Uncle Tony."

"Uncle Tony?" Fornell repeated from Gibbs' desk which Gibbs was gesturing that he had to get up from.

"Tobias Fornell, this is Lance Corporal Jamie Sullivan, my nephew." Tony said proudly.

"Lance Corporal Sullivan." Fornell shook the young marine's hand. Standing next to Tony, Fornell could see the DiNozzo family resemblance.

"Where are we at Agent Fornell?" Jamie wanted to know.

"Agent David?" Fornell asked Ziva who had returned with Gibbs and Jamie.

"Maggie's neighbor, Mr. Oliver Martech said he had noticed a strange car outside of your mother's house earlier in the day. It was gone by the time your mother got home, but when he was out on his nightly 'constitution' he saw the truck on the next street. He got the make, model and color and wrote down the plates."

"Which I ran Boss." McGee looked at Gibbs over his computer. Fornell stepped into McGee's line of vision to remind him who he was reporting too.

"Sorry." McGee corrected himself before continuing. "The plates are stolen as is the truck, a Chevy Suburban that was stolen in Maryland and the plates came from Virginia. Local LEOs found the truck abandoned about an hour out of DC here." McGee clicked on the plasma screen and showed the truck sitting abandoned in a truck stop.

"He must have moved her into another truck. Earlier tapes show a white panel van leaving the truck stop about 15 minutes after the suburban was left there."

"Do we have any footage?" Gibbs walked over to the plasma and looked at it.

McGee looked at Fornell and when he didn't put the images up right away, Gibbs got impatient.

"Well? Do we?" Gibbs barked.

Fornell nodded at McGee.

"We do Boss."

Gibbs watched as the tape rolled and Antonelli took an unconscious Maggie out of the rear of the Suburban and tossed her over his shoulder. He walked with her to the white panel van which was just under the video camera.

"Do we have a better angle?" Gibbs asked. The only part of the van showing was the tail end so that you could see the doors open and see Maggie thrown into the van and it looked like she was being covered with something, then the doors were shut and the van disappeared from view.

"That's it?" Gibbs asked.

"So far." McGee told him. "The footage was taken just outside of Frederick, MD."

"Any info on the white van?" Fornell added.

"I'm running recognition software for white vans on the highway cameras now."

"There are a lot of white vans." Jamie commented from where he was watching the plasma screen.

Gibbs, Fornell, McGee and Tony turned to look at Jamie. For all the young man's Marine discipline, the fear for his mother was beginning to show.

"Jamie, come with me, I'll get you something to drink." Tony steered Jamie away from the screen.

"I'm fine Uncle Tony."

"That wasn't a choice Jamie." Tony leaned in and whispered in his ear. Too many men in one room worrying about Maggie was going to get ugly soon.

Tony brought Jamie to the vending machines and made him sit down. He poured a cup of black coffee for Jamie and a cup of ½ decaf ½ regular for himself and brought them both to the table.

"How did you know how I like my coffee?" Jamie asked as he looked down into the cup.

"You're your parent's child and you're a Marine. Most of the Marines I know drink their coffee black."

"Like Gibbs?"

Tony smiled, he realized that this was the first time Jamie had met Gibbs.

"Yeah, like Gibbs." He told his nephew.

"Gibbs a good guy?" Jamie wanted to know.

"The best." Tony answered honestly.

"Is he good for my mother?"

Tony read a lot into that question. Jamie would never think anyone was as good as his father had been; even Tony would have to agree there.

"Yeah, Gibbs is good for your mother and he's good for her." Tony began. "Look Jamie, no one will ever replace your father. He was as good as they get, but Gibbs. Gibbs is a great guy too. They don't come like Gibbs anymore. He's old school, hell he doesn't even have cable television or the Internet at home. He may be hard to get to know and he doesn't let many people inside that tough Gary Cooper outside, but he'll go above and beyond for those people he cares about. Don't tell anyone but if they hadn't met on their own, I would have tried to fix them up. They are good for each other."

Gibbs stood around the corner from where Tony and Jamie sat. He heard what Tony said about his relationship with Maggie and that he'd wanted them together before he knew they were together. He turned around and went back to his desk. He didn't want to interrupt the moment between the two.

"Good. Now we just need to get her back." Jamie said and took a sip of his coffee.

"Junior? Is this who I think it is?"

Tony and Jamie looked up as Senior walked over to the table.

"Oh my God, it has to be." Senior looked down at the young man with the Marine haircut and uniform. "You look just like Junior did at that age."

"Dad, not now." Tony stood up.

Jamie looked at his Uncle and the man who had just walked over. He'd never met his maternal grandfather. The only one he'd known was the man who raised his mother, her step-father. Jamie knew there was history between his mother and her biological father, but he'd always had a curiosity about the man.

"Lance Corporal Jamie Sullivan." Jamie said as he stood and offered his hand to Senior. "Nice to finally meet you sir."

"You know who I am?" Senior said as he shook his grandson's hand.

"Yes sir. I've seen pictures of you."

Senior and Tony gave Jamie surprised looks.

"Your mother has pictures of me?" Senior asked.

Jamie smiled. "No sir, I looked you up on the Internet."

"Tony, we need you for a second." McGee came over and told Tony.

Tony was hesitant to leave Senior and Jamie alone, but he wanted to find out what McGee had found. He walked over to the agent who was escorting Senior in the building.

"Keep an eye on them."

"Junior stop worrying." Senior smiled as he sat down at the table with Jamie. "I would like a chance to get to know my grandson."

How long had she been gone now Maggie wondered? It was just getting dark when she'd come back from her run and when she'd taken Freckles out around the block, it was even darker. The first time she woke up in this room, there was some light coming from the window and now it was dark again. She figured she'd been gone over 24 hours. She thought about the dog. She thought about Jamie. She thought about Gibbs. Would he know she was gone? They had gone more than 24 hours without talking when he was stuck on a case, but he'd text. Even if it was just a word or two just to keep contact. Maybe when she didn't text back he'd worry and come by the house.

A key turned in the lock on the door and it swung open. Joe walked in with a bottle of water and a sandwich. He sat down on the chair and began to unwrap the sandwich. He said nothing, he just looked at her. Maggie just stared back. She was repulsed when his eyes moved slowly down her body and the way he'd lick his lips. Her stomach turned from thirst, hunger and disgust.

"You know they'll find you." Maggie spat out.

"Who? Your boyfriend? Your brother? Oh how about your rich daddy?"

"My rich daddy?"

Joe moved the chair closer to the cot and ran his fingers up and down her leg.

"Your rich daddy DiNozzo. Did you know I found him?"

Maggie's face showed surprise.

"Another secret you kept from me. You had a rich daddy." His palm came down sharply on her thigh causing Maggie to cry out in pain.

"Scream out all you want you little whore. No one can here you out here. You'll pay for lying to me and hiding what belongs to me." Joe screamed at her.

"What are you talking about?" Maggie asked.

He responded by slapping her across the face hard.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

Tony joined the rest of the team in the bullpen. Up on the screen was Joe Antonelli's mug shot and rap sheet.

"Joseph Antonelli;" McGee began. "Arrested several times in his early 20's for breaking and entering and drunk driving. In 1995 got arrested for assault with a deadly weapon; in 1996 for attempted murder spent 8 years in jail after pleading out on a lesser charge; got out on a technicality. Started working for local Boston Mob in drug running."

"Sounds like a lovely guy." Ziva deadpanned. "How did Maggie get involved with him?"

"Beats me." Gibbs said quietly, he was thinking the same thing.

"And this is what I wanted to point out." McGee changed the screen. "Two years ago his name came up when Johnny Pavlek, a small time drug dealer who got caught made a deal with the Boston PD to name names. Especially about the drug sting that James Sullivan was working on when he died." McGee explained.

"James Sullivan and three other undercover detectives were trying to find out who was running drugs in and out of Boston's projects. They were getting close to finding out, apparently too close. The night the sting was supposed to go down, the money man, a Damien Ortiz got caught. The drugs were there but the money was never found. Pavlek said that Antonelli showed up to get the money wherever Ortiz had stashed it but it was gone."

"He thought James and the other cops had stolen it?" Tony was shocked.

"Don't know. What we do know if the three other officers who were part of the sting have all died suspiciously over the past few years. One in a car accident, one in a fire said to be caused by a house candle and one during a shootout."

"How was the last one considered suspicious?" Fornell questioned McGee.

"Because he was shot from a different direction than the actual shooting. The guns and bullets at the scene didn't match the bullet pulled from the body."

"Let me get this straight. James and three other Boston cops who were all in on the drug sting have died by unnatural causes." Tony began and McGee nodded. "Ortiz is in prison so he is off the list. This Johnny Pavlek turns evidence for the state and names Antonelli as the person who they were looking for."

"He also said that it was Antonelli who was the one who killed the cops."

"Can you get me in to see Pavlek?" Gibbs demanded of Fornell.

"No, but I can." Fornell flipped open his phone and began making calls for him and McGee to fly up to Boston and interview Pavlek.

"Boss…"

Gibbs knew how loaded that one word out of Tony's mouth was. If Antonelli had killed three men already thinking they had the money, then Maggie would be next.


	19. Chapter 19

Johnny Pavlek was a tiny weasely looking man. The orange jumpsuit he was wearing did nothing for his sallow complexion and greasy hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. His knee bounced nervously up and down while he sat across the table from McGee and Fornell.

"I told them everything there was to tell." Pavlek said.

"Tell me." Fornell began. "Antonelli thinks that one of the cops stole the money from the drug drop that night."

"S'what he told me. Said that one of Boston's finest was living of his money and he wanted it back."

"So he hunted them down?"

"Rumor has it that the cop who died in the house fire hated candles, so how did a candle set his house on fire? And the one in the accident, faulty brakes on a new car? I don't think so."

"And the cop in the shootout. The one where he was shot from behind."

"Just saying, dig deeper and see if Antonelli set that up."

"And James Sullivan?" Fornell pressed.

"He was shot during the raid. Antonelli figured that his share of the money, or hell all the money was hidden and Sullivan's widow knew where it was."

"So he started dating the widow."

"Yeah, sweet piece of ass she is."

McGee swore silently. If Gibbs had been here to hear that comment, Pavlek would be dead now.

"Watch it." Fornell threatened.

"Antonelli figured that tough tactics wouldn't work with her so he tried a different approach. But zebras can't change their spots and Antonelli liked to rough up women. She got smart and got the cops behind her. Then she sold her house and disappeared. Antonelli knew she didn't get full price for the house and knew she had the money. Once he set his sights on her, nothing else would stand in his way."

"It's a match Gibbs." Abby said unhappily. Knowing now that the bullet pulled out of Freckles matched the slug taken from the cop in Boston proved that Antonelli was the killer and Maggie was in a lot of trouble.

Gibbs nodded and stared at the image. Fornell had filled him in on the information from Pavlek. Antonelli thought that Maggie had his money and would go to any length to get it back. Gibbs turned to Abby and saw how tired she was. No one had left the building unless it was case related in almost 48 hours.

"Go home Abs." he kissed her on the cheek. "You look exhausted."

"And you look any better?" she told him. "I'll go home when you go home. Why don't you use my futon, you need sleep too."

"Nah, sleep is overrated." Gibbs told her as he left the lab.

"I need to use the bathroom." Maggie told Joe. What she really needed was for him to untie her hands. She still had her running watch on and she hoped the damned thing was still charged.

Joe approached the bed with a wicked looking knife.

"Roll over." He told her.

Maggie carefully rolled to her side and closed her eyes. Her plan had to work. She felt the cold steel of the knife slit the plastic ties and manage to knick her skin as well. Joe traced the tip of the knife down along Maggie's side, along her hip, down over her backside and down her leg. She felt the tie on her ankles snap as her feet were freed.

Moving her hands in front of her she carefully slipped the watch off and into her jacket pocket while she rubbed her hands together to get the circulation going again.

"What are you doing?" Joe demanded as he roughly grabbed her causing her to fall off the bed and on to the cement floor.

"I can't feel my feet and hands; they've been tied up too long. I'm trying to get the blood flowing."

"That's all you better be doing or I'll show you another way I can get the blood flowing." He slipped the tip of the knife under her chin and tipped her face up to look at him. "Now get up." He yelled at her. "Or do I have to carry you to the bathroom and take your pants off for you."

Maggie held the vomit down and stood up. Her feet felt like a million needles were sticking into them as she willed her body to stand on its own. Joe pushed her out the door and into the small hallway. She was in a basement of a house. The stairs to the upper floor were in front of her; Joe pushed her in another direction.

"Don't even think it. You'll be dead before the first stair." He warned her.

Maggie was pushed into a smaller room that had a toilet and a sink.

"You have two minutes." He told her.

Maggie closed the door and looked up to make sure there were no cameras in there. She pulled down her pants and hoped the sounds of nature would mask what she was doing. Taking the watch from her pocket she pressed a few buttons and saw what she feared. She didn't have much power left. Moving her finger across the flat square screen she found her text button. She typed out the letters SOS and JOE and FIND ME and sent them to Gibbs and Tony and prayed it would go through.

"Times up."

Maggie finished her business and tucked her watch back into her pocket just as Joe opened the door.

"Time for us to talk about the money." He said as he yanked her from the bathroom and dragged her back to the room.

Gibbs felt his phone vibrate at his side at the same time Tony's vibrated on his desk.

SOS

JOE

FIND ME

Flashed across their respective screens.

"McGEE!" both men yelled at the same time.

"What are you talking about? What money?" Maggie was confused.

"The money your thieving husband stole from me." Joe yelled at her.

"Joe never stole money from you. He never knew you."

Joe got in Maggie's face. She could smell the cigarettes and booze on his breath.

"Oh he knew me. You know me too. I'm the man who killed him."

"Got it boss. Signal is weak, but I've got it narrowed down."

Fornell was already on the phone with his team ordering them to the area that McGee narrowed down. Three hours outside of DC in a remote wooded area. There were several abandoned houses there from a development deal that went bust.

"Gibbs you have to remember let me take the lead." Fornell warned him. "If you're gonna go all cowboy on me, I'm going to cuff you to the desk."

"Try it."

"You killed Joe."

"Yeah, him and his partners stole my money and I want it back. None of the others have it so I figured the bastard must have known where it was and since none of the others had wives, you were the last possible choice."

Maggie sat there stunned. Joe thought James had stolen money from him and Joe killed him.

"Where is the money?"

"I have no idea." Maggie told him.

Joe reached out and slapped her hard enough that she tasted blood in her mouth.

"Try again." He told her.

"Joe, I don't know what you're talking about."

Joe hit her again, this time Maggie hit her head on the wall and was knocked unconscious. Joe kicked the bed hard and slammed out of the room leaving Maggie slumped on the bed.

It was the longest three hours Gibbs had spent in a car. Fornell drove while Gibbs rode in the passenger seat while McGee was in the back working his magic on the laptop. He objected at first to not being allowed to drive, but realized that if he drove, they may have gotten in an accident and then what good would it be. Tony refused to be left behind to babysit his father and nephew, so he was in another car driven by Ziva.

"We will find her Tony."

"I know." He said quietly. "But will she be alive. That bastard has already killed 4 people and god knows what else he's done."

"All for money that does not exist." Ziva stated.

McGee had researched the evidence from that night. A rival drug dealer had gotten to the scene before the James and the other cops had gotten there and taken the money and most of the drugs. The rival dealer had been tipped off by Pavlek and to save Antonelli from killing him, he made up the 'cops stole the money' story to save his own ass. So all the murders had happened for no reason. The money had been gone all this time.


	20. Chapter 20

"Gibbs, just give my men a minute to check it out." Fornell told his friend. "Chances are the van is empty."

Two miles from the GPS location McGee had found, the caravan of cars racing to find Maggie came across a white panel van, similar to the one seen in the video footage.

"Just wait in the car." Fornell asked his friend.

"The hell I will." Gibbs barked as he barely waited for the car to come to a complete stop before jumping out.

"You really didn't think he was going to stay did you?" McGee asked from the back seat.

"No but I hoped."

The two other cars following Fornell's stopped behind and the other FBI agents and Ziva and Tony spread out and advanced on the van.

"Federal Agents." Fornell announced as they crept closer.

When there was no reply, Fornell motioned Ziva to get closer to the driver's side. Ziva approached cautiously along the side of the van and through the driver's side mirror, she could not see anyone in the van.

"No driver." She announced.

McGee confirmed the same as he crept down the passenger side of the van. Fornell motioned his two agents to the back of the van. Each agent put one hand on a handle, one on their guns. Gibbs and his team positioned themselves behind the van. Tony's heart slammed in his chest fearing that his sister would be in the back of the van.

Gibbs took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He nodded at Fornell who nodded at his men to open the door. Everyone tensed as the doors were pulled open, but there was no one inside the van.

"Clear." One of the agents announced.

Gibbs put his weapon away and walked over to the van. The first thing he saw was Maggie's running shoe. He reached out to pick it up but Ziva stopped him. He glared back at her until he saw she was handing him a glove to put on. Gibbs nodded.

McGee checked the front of the van while Ziva and the FBI agents checked the back where Maggie was kept.

"The only thing we can find is this tarp and the shoe." An agent informed Fornell.

"Nothing up front either. Just some water bottles." McGee had bagged them and handed them off to Fornell.

Gibbs was walking around the perimeter of the car. He bent down and noticed footsteps leading away from the van. One was a man's sized work boot, the other set of prints was of one sneaker, a right one and something smudged which would be Maggie walking with one sock on and one shoe on.

"Trail goes off this way Boss." Tony informed Gibbs. "Do we follow?"

"Hell yes we follow." Gibbs barked.

"Gibbs…" Fornell warned.

Gibbs turned and faced his friend; his eyes were hard as he stared at Fornell.

"We going to stand here and argue this or we going to follow the trail?" Gibbs fumed.

"We are going to follow the trail, but you are not going to lead." Fornell ordered and walked past Gibbs and took the lead.

Maggie felt blood inside her mouth. Joe had moved on from slaps with his hands to a punch this time.

"Joe, you need to believe me. I have no idea where any money is or who has it."

She knew that Joe was dangerous in his current frame of mind. He told her how he had killed the other cops and knew that he would do the same to her. She had hoped upon hope that somehow Tony or Gibbs had gotten her text. If they got it to McGee, McGee would find where it came from. Gibbs said McGee could do anything with computers and Maggie sure hoped that Tim was as good as they said.

"Still lying?" Joe fumed. "You must like the pain."

This time, Joe grabbed Maggie from the bed and threw her against the wall. His hands squeezed around her neck. Maggie clawed at his hands trying to get him to release her. Joe was raging at her; his words not making any sense. She tried to kick at him as hard as she could. Joe released her and threw her on the bed.

"I'll make sure you'll never forget me." Joe menaced as he began taking his belt off. "I'll be the last man you know before you die." He seethed as he undid the button on his pants.

The team squatted down in the bushes around the small house. McGee confirmed that Maggie's signal was weak but it was coming from inside. Slowly they made their way to the house. Gibbs checked the side windows. No one was visible inside, but there were signs of someone being there. Ziva and McGee checked the other side of the house and confirmed that no one was in the house.

Tony joined them and was about to tell them that there was no back door when they heard Maggie scream.

"Scream all you want." Joe leered at her. "No one can hear…"

"Federal Agents! Come out Antonelli with your hands up."

Maggie said her silent thank you while Joe ran up the stairs. It was seconds before the gun fire began.

Joe grabbed his gun and began firing through the widow. Gibbs and the team ducked for cover behind the trees and fired back.

Maggie didn't wait to see who would be coming down the stairs next. She dragged herself up; ignoring the pain she was in; and moved the chair over to the window. Joe was busy shooting at her rescuers and not watching her in the video monitor. She stood up to reach the window. For the past few days she'd been staring at that same window. She knew she could shimmy through it. The glass was only one pane thick; so Maggie took off her sweatshirt and wrapped her fist in it and ignoring the pain, she slammed her hand through the window as hard as she could. She hit the glass until all the shards were free and she pulled herself up and through the window. Glass cut at her body in places until she had pulled herself free.

The agents continued to fire on the house. Gibbs couldn't move from his position. Joe recognized Gibbs as the man Maggie was involved with and took his frustrations out in his directions. The angrier he got, the more crazed he got. The more crazed he got, the sloppier he got. Joe walked to another window and slammed the glass out with the butt of his gun. He began shooting blindly out the window, sweeping his shots left to right.

Gibbs froze; he knew what was going to happen next. He started yelling, but Antonelli was yelling himself, right up to the moment one of his shots went stray and hit the large propane tank next to the house.

The explosion knocked Maggie down. She felt the air rush from her lungs as the flames engulfed the house behind her. Slowly, she began to pull herself back up. She moved around the house and that is when she saw him. Gibbs was standing there in shock staring at the house.

"Gibbs." She cried weakly.

She willed her feet to move.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Gibbs felt her before he actually saw her. He turned to the back of the house. Maggie was staggering towards him. Voices were yelling around him, calling out Maggie's name. He ran forward and caught Maggie in his arms just as her legs finally gave out. He brushed her hair off her face gently avoiding the cuts and bruises.

"Took you long enough." Maggie croaked hoarsely.

Gibbs smiled down at Maggie. "We stopped for coffee."

"Hope you got me some." Maggie coughed. "I could use one."

Tony gave Maggie and Gibbs a minute before he joined them.

"Hey." Maggie said to Tony as she lay on the ground, Gibbs' jacket wrapped around her.

"Hey yourself." Tony took Maggie's bruised hand in his. "Ambulance is on the way."

"Can't I just go home?" Maggie looked from Tony to Gibbs.

"No. Hospital first." Gibbs still cradled the hand she had used to punch the window out with. It was starting to swell and he wanted to make sure she was okay in all other ways.

"Joe?"

Tony looked back at the burning house. The fire truck sirens were heard in the distance, but Tony didn't believe Joe survived the blast.

"Don't think he survived that."

"Good." Maggie started feeling the world spin around her. "Think I'll just shut my eyes for a bit." And knowing that she was safe; Gibbs found her and was at her side, Maggie let the pain take over and she passed out.


	21. Chapter 21

Tony dotted his last 'I' and crossed his last 't' on the admitting forms for Maggie. As the only relative at the hospital, he was asked to fill out the forms. He was surprised at how much information he'd had to ask Gibbs for because he just didn't know things about Maggie.

"All yours now." Tony smiled at the young nurse behind the desk. He fought the urge to flirt a little with the pretty blonde when Maggie's attending doctor walked over to him.

"Mr. DiNozzo. I'm Dr. Candry." The man introduced himself as he shook Tony's hand.

"How is she?" Tony asked as they walked down the hall towards Maggie's room.

"She has a mild concussion, several lacerations and bruises, no broken bones though." The doctor read the charts to Tony.

"What about…" Tony didn't want to ask if Joe had raped his sister, but he had to know.

"Rape kit was negative. The man who kidnapped her beat her up and there was a long knife mark down her side, but nothing to do damage or leave a scar."

They reached Maggie's room. Gibbs was sitting in a chair next to Maggie's bed. His hand held her free hand that wasn't bandaged. Maggie's face was covered in bruises; the ones on her body were covered by the hospital gown and sheets on the bed.

"When can she go home?" Tony asked while he looked at how small his sister looked in the bed.

"Sometime tomorrow or the day after, she was also severely dehydrated. I would like her more stable before I send her home."

Tony thanked the doctor and stepped quietly into the room.

"Did you call Jamie?" Gibbs spoke quietly so he wouldn't wake Maggie up.

"I did. He's going back to base. I don't think he wants to see Maggie like this."

"She wouldn't want him to see her like this either." Gibbs agreed.

"Told him I'd have her call when she wakes up."

Gibbs nodded and looked at Maggie. His anger had only subsided some. Ducky was running tests with Abby to make sure the body in the fire was Antonelli's. Until he knew for sure the bastard was dead, he would not be happy.

"Do you need anything Boss?" Tony broke the silence. "Coffee?"

"No, I'm good." Gibbs responded and looked up at Tony. "Where's Senior?"

"My place. He's a wreck about this. He wanted to come and see Maggie."

"No. No way in hell." Gibbs fought not to yell. "He's to blame for this."

Tony wanted to argue in his father's behalf. Senior was a lot of things, but not someone who would hand his daughter over to a psycho like Antonelli willingly.

"Oh my God."

Gibbs and Tony turned to the door where Abby was standing. Tears began to slide down her cheeks.

"Abs?" both men said at the same time.

"I thought you'd want the DNA results." She held the manila folder tight to her chest.

Tony walked over to hug Abby, seeing Maggie like this was clearly upsetting to her.

"You could have called." Gibbs wanted to go over and hug Abby himself, but was reluctant to let go of Maggie's hand.

"I wanted to see if there was anything I could do." Abby walked over to the foot of Maggie's bed and handed Gibbs the folder.

"I don't have my glasses." He informed her and handed the folder to Tony.

Tony looked at the folder and told Gibbs that the body in the fire was definitely Antonelli's and the rest of the anger inside Gibbs subsided. He focused his attention on Maggie and took her hand and kissed it gently not caring who was in the room to see him do that.

"Can I get you anything? Coffee? Food? You have to eat." Abby told both men.

"I think I should go check on Senior." Tony replied. "Can you give me a ride home Abs?"

Abby nodded.

"Wait, Abs, there is something you can do for me." Gibbs reached into his pocket and pulled out Maggie's keys. "Can you go to her place and just throw some stuff in a bag for her. Then leave it at my place. You know what to get."

Abby took the keys from Gibbs and kissed him on the cheek.

"Sure thing." Abby knew that Gibbs would rather she go through Maggie's personal things than have Tony do it.

She walked over to the other side of the bed and kissed Maggie on the top of the head.

The only time Gibbs left Maggie's side was when the nurse came in and gave him no choice. They needed to check her and made him leave. He got himself a cup of coffee from the vending machine and grabbed a magazine from the waiting room. Without his glasses, reading would be difficult, but at least he could look at the pictures in a magazine. When he was allowed back in the room, he took his seat again sitting in the chair next to the bed. He turned the chair so one arm rested on the bed while he held her hand. His fingers moved gingerly over the bruised skin on the back of her hand. The nurse had told him that she was resting comfortably and that they had given her a mild sedative to help her sleep. Gibbs watched the IV attached to the back of her hand drip down the tubing. She was dehydrated and the fluids would help.

Every once in a while Maggie would stir in her sleep. She murmured Gibbs name.

"I'm here Maggie. I'm right here." He would reach up and gently stroke her face until she fell back to sleep.

Eventually Gibbs tired of reading the magazine and leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Sleep over took him. He'd been awake from the moment they found out Maggie was taken. Within minutes, he was sound asleep in the chair. His dreams took him to the day he found out Shannon and Kelly had been killed. They took him to camping trips with them, to horseback riding on the beach, to reunions when he'd come home. And they finally took him to Shannon. She looked just as she had the last time he saw her standing in the driveway waving goodbye, her hair long around her shoulders, dressed in jeans and one of his Marine tee shirts.

_"It's time Gibbs." Dream Shannon addressed him._

_"Time for what?" he was confused._

_"It's time to let me go. It's time to love again. I like Maggie. Go, be happy with her."_

_Gibbs didn't understand what Dream Shannon was saying. She smiled at him and reached out to stroke his cheek._

_"Kelly and I are fine now. We want…no we need you to be happy. If you love Maggie, tell her. Be happy. It's all we ever wanted for you."_

_Gibbs felt a tug on his hand and looked down to see his daughter, forever 8 years old, smiling up at him._

_"Daddy, Maggie is nice. She makes you laugh. Really laugh, like I did."_

_Gibbs felt Kelly let go of his hand and take her mother's as they turned and walked away from him. He could still here Dream Shannon's voice in his head telling him to let go, be happy, and be in love again._

Maggie blinked her eyes open and looked around the room. She was out of the room Joe had kept her that much she knew. Looking down beside her, she saw Gibbs sleeping in the chair, one of his hands holding hers. She tried to say his name, but her throat was dry so she squeezed his hand with all the strength she could manage.

Gibbs' eyes flew open and he sat up in the chair.

"Hi." He smiled softly at Maggie letting go of her hand to cup her face between his hands.

Maggie mouthed the word water and he reached over to get the cup next to the bed. He took the straw and brought it to her mouth.

"Slowly." He told her as she sipped the water. "Better?" he asked.

Maggie took another sip and handed the cup back to him. He sat down on the bed next to her and ran his fingers over her face trying to avoid the bandages and bruises which wasn't easy.

"I must look like I got hit by a truck."

"Nah." He smiled at her. "I've seen worse."

"Liar." She reached up with her free hand and touched his face. "You look like hell."

"Trouble sleeping the past few nights." He grinned at her. "Been sleeping in my chair at work."

Maggie couldn't hold the tears back. She apologized as she cried.

"Why are you apologizing?" he asked. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I don't like crying in front of anyone." Maggie tried to calm herself.

"I'm not just anyone am I?" he asked as he tipped her chin up so she'd look at him.

Maggie shook her head 'no' and sat up to let Gibbs hold her close. She flinched a little when his hand accidentally touched one of the bruises on her back. His hate for Antonelli grew again for the pain he had inflicted on Maggie.

"Gibbs, I want to go home." She whispered in his ear.

"Tomorrow. When the doc says it's okay. We'll go home."

Gibbs put another log into the fire while he juggled the phone in his ear.

"She's fine Dad. Banged up but fine." Gibbs told his father when he called him after he brought Maggie back to his house. "As soon as she's better. Maybe we'll come down…No you don't have to drive all the way here….Okay, I'll talk to you."

Hanging up the phone, Gibbs made sure the fire was burning enough and went into the kitchen. There wasn't any food in the house, not that he'd really been big on things like that. He started making a pot of coffee when he heard his front door open.

"Gibbs?" Abby called out to him.

"Kitchen Abs."

Abby put down the small duffle bag and shopping bag she'd brought with her. Gibbs had called her early in the morning and told her they were leaving the hospital and to meet them at his house.

"Did you get what I asked for?"

Abby saluted Gibbs. "Yes Sir."

Gibbs smiled at Abby. "Wrong hand Abby."

Abby corrected herself and saluted Gibbs again.

"Maggie upstairs?" she asked him.

"In the shower."

"I'll bring this stuff up to her." Abby started back to the hallway. "Oh, and Ducky was behind me."

"And I'm right here." Ducky's voice came from the door. "A little help would be nice."

Abby went upstairs to bring Maggie her things while Gibbs relieved Ducky of his packages.

"What's this?"

"Food." Ducky explained as Ziva came in with more bags.

"We thought you would be hungry and since we were all at the office and we were hungry.."Ziva started to explain.

"We decided to bring our meal to you." Ducky finished as he took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. "Now let's set the table."

"Maggie?" Abby called as she knocked on the slightly open bathroom door.

"One second Abby." Maggie replied as she turned off the hot water. She really hoped Gibbs liked cold showers since she was pretty sure she'd used all the hot water in the house. Gibbs told her to wait to take a shower since Abby was on her way with her shampoo and other toiletries, but Maggie didn't want to wait. She just wanted to wash the past few days away. Besides the smell of Ivory soap wasn't so bad on Gibbs, she'd live with it on her.

Once the water was turned off she reached for a towel and wrapped her body in it. Using a towel to wrap her hair proved to be a little harder. She couldn't move her arms easily and the pain made her groan.

"Maggie? Are you okay?" Abby asked again.

"I think I need some help." Maggie conceded.

The door slowly opened and Abby stepped in and closed it.

"Tell me what you need." Abby knew it would be difficult for Maggie to ask for help. She was a grown woman used to doing things on her own.

"My hair is dripping wet."

"That's not a problem. Here turn around." Abby took another towel and began to gently press the length of Maggie's hair to get the excess water out. Abby told Maggie that this was how her mother used to dry her hair when she was little. Maggie was happy to let Abby talk about her mother, it took her mind off the bruises that Abby could see visible on her arms and legs.

"Okay. Let's get you dressed. Gibbs had me go to your house and pick some stuff up for you." Abby led Maggie from the bathroom to the bedroom.

Abby helped Maggie dry off and put on underwear and sweatpants. Maggie tried to put a bra on but the straps and hooks fell at places where there were bruises.

"Hmm…" Abby wondered as Maggie sat on the edge of the bed with the towel still wrapped around her upper body. "Do you really need to put one on? You could just put a tee shirt on and one of Gibbs' sweatshirts over it. It's more about comfort right now than modesty."

Maggie agreed. Once she was dressed, they tackled the problem of Maggie's hair. Since Gibbs didn't own a blow drier, Maggie let Abby towel dry her hair and then comb it out. When Abby declared it dry enough, she braided it loosely for Maggie.

"There. Done." Abby stated as she helped Maggie stand up. "Oops, wait. One more thing." From the little extra bag she had with her Abby pulled out a pair of socks with hippos on them.

"I wanted to get you Bert slippers but they made too much noise." Abby explained as she helped Maggie with her socks.

"Bert?"

"My hippo. When you squeeze him he farts. It always makes me feel better."

Maggie smiled at Abby. She completely understood why Gibbs was so fond of her. After all she'd been through in the past few days and how his team had been there for him, Maggie understood how he felt about all of them.

They made their way slowly down the stairs to the entry way. Gibbs heard them talking and was waiting for them at the bottom.

"You feeling better?" he asked Maggie when she reached the bottom step.

Abby left them alone and joined Ziva and Ducky in the dining room. The three of them did their best to pretend they weren't trying to eavesdrop on Gibbs and Maggie. In her sock covered feet, standing on the bottom step, Maggie came just about eye to eye with Gibbs. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her into him, resting his forehead against hers.

"You smell good." He said softly.

"I smell like you." She teased.

"Nah, you don't smell like sawdust." He said as he kissed her cheek. "Come on, you need to eat. Ducky brought just about everything he could think of."

Before Maggie stepped off the stair, a movement at Gibbs' front door caught her attention. She froze as she stared over Gibbs' shoulder. Gibbs saw where Maggie was looking and turned to the door. He closed his eyes and swore silently.

"What the hell is Senior doing here?" Maggie demanded when she saw Tony and Senior standing there.


	22. Chapter 22

"I really hope you know what you're doing." Gibbs said as he opened the front door and stepped out on to the porch closing the door behind him.

"Either I took him or he was coming on his own." Tony defended himself.

"Gibbs, that's my daughter in there." Senior began.

"No, that's Tony's sister in there. That's someone very important to me in there." Gibbs corrected Senior. "She doesn't consider you her father."

Tony had to admit, that was a low blow even for Gibbs. He wanted to stand up to Gibbs and defend his father, but Senior stopped him.

"Gibbs, I know you don't think very much of me and even less of my parenting skills, but Maggie is still my daughter and I want to right a terrible wrong. I think she is the only one to tell me to leave."

"And what if that is what I want?"

Gibbs stepped aside from the door that Maggie had just opened and let her look at Senior. He couldn't think but how small she looked in his sweatshirt standing there. He wanted to grab her, toss her in the truck and take her someplace where she could be safe and heal. Just the two of them alone, making everyone else stay out. But he'd kept people out for too long, it was time to change.

"Maggie, honey…" Senior began.

"Don't. Don't call me honey." Maggie warned him.

"Can we please go inside and talk. I just want to know that you are okay." Senior pleaded.

"Well Senior. I've been kidnapped, beaten up and have some wicked cuts and bruises to show for my past few days but I'm fine. You can have Tony bring you back to where ever you were." Maggie started to turn around and walk back inside.

"I want to apologize for bringing that character back into your life." Senior called out to her.

Maggie was as far as the living room when she heard that. She reached her hand out to the archway to steady herself. Abby started to go to her, but was stopped by Ducky. He shook his head letting her know that they had to stay out of this.

"I'm sorry, did I hear you correctly?" Maggie turned to face Senior who was now inside the house. "YOU are the reason Joe found me?" The anger in her body was starting to make her shake.

"I…" Senior stumbled for the words. Tony could hear the gears of his father's excuse maker turning. He hoped desperately that for once his father would come clean.

"You what?" Maggie spat out. "How in the hell did Joe Antonelli find you?"

"Maggie, please, you're shaking, please, let's sit down and talk." Senior tried to take her by the elbow over to the couch, but Maggie shook him off. Instead, she walked to the chair right next to the archway and sat down. Senior sat on the edge of the couch and looked around him. Ziva, Ducky and Abby were in the dining room watching the scene in the living room. Tony stood in the archway, his hands buried in his coat pockets. Gibbs sat on the arm of Maggie's chair, his hand resting at the base of her neck giving her his quiet support.

"Could I have a moment alone with my daughter please?" Senior asked.

Ducky cleared his throat and put his dish down. "Why don't we adjourn to the basement to see what project Gibbs is working on? I saw him start it a few months ago."

Gibbs nodded at the three in the other room, silently thanking Ducky for his tact.

"I would really like to talk to her alone." Senior said to Gibbs and Tony.

"Not happening." Gibbs told him.

"Gibbs can stay. It's his house. He can hear whatever you want to say to me. I have no secrets from him." Maggie told Senior. "And Tony's my brother. Now you need to explain this to me."

Tony leaned against the archway and listened to Senior explain the entire story to Maggie. When he was done he looked at her and waited for her to say something, anything.

"I don't know what you want from me. To say I forgive you? To say it's not your fault? Why didn't you call Tony first?" Maggie asked not expecting an answer.

"Maggie, I did a lot of things wrong when it came to you and your mother." He began.

"A lot?" she snorted. "Try everything. But this is not the time or the place to hash this out. I don't have the strength or energy to have THAT conversation."

Senior nodded. "Will you at least think about having that conversation?" Senior asked hopefully. "I'd like to get to know my daughter and my grandson."

Maggie gave Tony a questioning look.

"They met at NCIS. I tried to keep them apart."

Maggie shook her head. "I'm not mad at you Tony. Jamie's a grown man, if he wants to know Senior, I can't stop him." She turned her attention back to Senior. "As to any more conversations, I don't know right now. Add all this to our past history and it's more than I want to deal with right now."

Senior stood up and nodded. "I understand. Junior can you take me to the train station now?"

Maggie didn't look up at Senior as Gibbs stood to open the door. She was staring at the coffee table in front of the couch when she felt Senior stoop down and kiss her gently on the head. "Don't think that I never loved you Maggie."

Tony didn't hear what his father said, but judging from the expression on Maggie's face, it was surprising to her. He followed Senior out the front door and turned to Gibbs.

"I'll come back after I drop him off, if that's okay."

"I think you have to. Ducky brought enough food for an army."

They all sat at the small dining room table; Gibbs sitting on a stool brought up from the basement next to Maggie his arm draped on the back of her chair. Ducky, Ziva and Abby in the three remaining chairs while latecomer McGee and Tony sat on the couch in the dining room. No one talked about the kidnapping or Senior. Instead the conversation was based on the strangest things they'd come across in their cases. When Abby got to the part about McGee adopting the dog she'd renamed Jethro, Maggie realized she hadn't seen the dog around the house.

"Where is Freck?" she asked Gibbs. In everything that happened he'd managed to not tell her what had happened with the dog.

"He's with my brother Kyle." Abby offered. "He's taking great care of her. Jimmy did a great job getting the bullet out."

"Bullet..Did you say bullet?" Maggie was shocked.

"Gibbs, you didn't tell her?"

"I was preoccupied with her." Gibbs said in his own defense.

"Where is she?" Maggie started to stand up, but Gibbs put his hands on her shoulder to stop her.

"Maggie, she's fine. Abby's brother Kyle is taking care of her."

"Here, let me call Kyle." Abby took out her smart phone and dialed Kyle's number. Kyle said Freckles was fine, still favoring her leg, but there was no real damage done. Kyle turned the phone to show Maggie a sleeping Freckles curled up on a dog bed with Kyle's dog next to her.

"See." Abby smiled. "She's in good hands. As soon as you feel better, I'll bring her here. Don't worry."

"I'm not worried, I trust you Abby."

When Gibbs could see Maggie starting to tire, he told everyone to go home. He'd gone down to the basement to bring the stool back down and find something to do to keep himself busy. Maggie was asleep in his bed and he didn't want to disturb her with his restless ness. He looked around the basement and remembered the boats he built, only one to completion. How many hours he would escape down here to hide from his ex-wives and from himself; he was burying himself in a basement he realized. Once he'd tidied up he started up the stairs to go to bed. He was surprised to see Maggie sitting sideways on the couch looking out the window.

"Hey." He said as he crossed the room to join her. "I thought you were sleeping." He nudged her forward and sat down behind her pulling her close and putting the blanket he kept on the couch around her.

"I couldn't sleep. You weren't there. I came down stairs and heard you in the basement. I didn't want to disturb you." She said as she snuggled back into his embrace.

"I wouldn't mind if you disturbed me." He kissed the side of her head.

"I figured I'd wait up here. I looked out the window and saw it was snowing."

"So it is." He agreed.

"When I was a kid back in Boston, there was a street light outside my bedroom window. Like the one across the street." She nodded to the light outside. "Every time it would snow, I'd move my bed to the window and put my pillow there. I'd stare out the window and watch it snow. It was like being in a snow globe. When I looked out the window tonight, I had that feeling again."

The two of them sat there watching the snow fall while the fire in the fireplace died down. They didn't need to talk, just being together was enough.

"I knew you'd find me." Maggie said after a while. "One way or another, I knew you'd figure out where I was."

Gibbs kissed her head again. "McGee gets the gold star for that one."

"It doesn't matter. I just knew you'd find me."

"There was no way I was going to lose someone I loved again." Gibbs told her.

Maggie turned in his arms and looked at him. "Gibbs?"

"I was not going to lose someone I love. I lost Shannon a long time ago. I loved her. I still do, but I love you too."

Maggie knew how hard that was for him to say. There were tears in his eye. He was laying out an emotion he hadn't in a long time. She never thought she'd feel the same way about a man again after James, but then she met Gibbs. Turning further in his lap, she moved to take his face in her hands the best she could.

"I love you too."

Epilogue

6 months later.

"I think the house is perfect." Jimmy stood in the living room of his and Bri's new home.

"I do too. Just some paint and personal touches and it's the perfect place for our new family." Bri rested her hands on her burgeoning belly. "I just can't believe the deal Gibbs gave us on the place."

Jimmy was shocked too. One afternoon a few weeks ago, Gibbs had come down to autopsy to see him. He'd heard that Jimmy and Bri were looking for a home now that they were starting a family. Their apartment was too small. Gibbs had offered to sell him his house. He said it was the perfect size for a young family and since he wasn't living there anymore; there was no reason to hold on to it. It was time for a new family to make new memories.

When Gibbs and Maggie decided to move in together at her house, Gibbs didn't have all that much to bring with him. Besides his books and clothes, all he had were his tools. Maggie happily gave up much of the garage to him which turned out to be bigger than his basement. He built a floor to ceiling bookcase for the living room to keep all the books he had and there was a special compartment to keep his gun box in so that Amira couldn't find it when she came to visit.

In the loft area above the garage Maggie and Gibbs put their memories. Pictures drawn and taken. Mementos of their past loves were put away with great care. Maggie suggested that Gibbs take his medals that Tony still kept in his desk drawer, but Gibbs didn't want them. She offered to make a case for them, but still he declined. He'd let Tony hold on to them.

Gibbs and Jamie grew close. Their shared love of the Marines and the experiences brought them together as well as their love for Maggie. One summer night in the dog days of August, Maggie found Gibbs sitting on the patio sipping a beer. She walked over to him and moved his arm so she could sit on his lap.

"Get your own." He teased her when she stole his beer and took a sip of it.

"Jamie just left."

"Armed with enough food to feed his friends?" Gibbs knew the answer to that.

"Not sure if it's friends or girlfriend. I got the feeling there is one."

Gibbs sipped his beer and tipped his head to the side.

"You know." Maggie smiled. "There is someone isn't there."

"Marines don't tell each other's secrets." Gibbs told her.

"Fine be that way." She started to get up from his lap, but he pulled her back down.

"We did talk about a girl though." Gibbs confessed.

"Really? And who would that be?"

"You." Gibbs smiled at her.

"Me? Why me?"

"Your son wants to know my intentions."

"Your what?" Maggie sputtered.

"He wants to know if I'm going to make an honest woman out of you or if we're going to keep living in sin."

"Oh my God, he did not. I swear I'm going to ring his neck."

"No. No you're not." Gibbs told her.

"Oh really and what am I going to do?" Maggie looked at him quizzically.

"Well you are going to decide."

"Decide what?"

Gibbs put his beer bottle down on the patio and wrapped his arms around her.

"Decide if you want to be an honest woman or a sinner."

Maggie was shocked. "Gibbs, are you asking me to marry you?"

Gibbs' response was to smile at her.

"You know, I don't believe in divorce. I say yes and you're stuck with me for life. There's no going back." She told him.

"So is that a yes?"

She looked into his blue eyes and shook her head. "Yeah, it's yes." Maggie kissed him soundly.  
"But I don't want to do big and all that. Been there done that."

"Me too." Gibbs said as he kissed her again. "I've got an idea."

"You want me to let you take care of things."

"Yup."

"I must be crazy, but okay."

All Maggie knew was they were getting married the next weekend; besides the Navy Chaplain Gibbs had called in a favor from, the only other person who would be present was Jamie. No one else knew. That was how they both wanted it for now. Apparently Abby was really into bachelor parties and had things left over from Jimmy's party she wanted to use. Gibbs managed to sneak out of the office on a Thursday afternoon to meet Maggie at City Hall to get their marriage license.

"Something is up with him." Tony commented when Gibbs left with a big smile on his face.

"Going out for a nooner?" Ziva teased him.

Tony shuddered. "I know it's just Gibbs to you, but his nooners would involve my sister and I'd rather not think about that. About them doing that."

"Tony, they live together. Do you not think they have sex? They sleep in the same bed." Ziva stated to Tony.

"I'd rather not think about their sex life. Let's think of McGee-I'm-Not-Getting-Any's sex life." Tony looked over to McGee at his desk.

"I'd rather you didn't think of mine either." McGee piped up.

The phone on Gibbs' desk rang. The three of them looked at the phone daring the other to answer it. Ziva finally got up and answered.

"Special Agent Gibbs' desk, Agent David speaking. No Chaplain, he has stepped out. Yes I will." Ziva hung up. "That was odd. Why would a Chaplain be calling Gibbs?"

"Don't know." McGee answered from his desk. "Maybe a case."

"We don't have any cases right now Probie." Tony reminded his teammate.

"So why would he need a Chaplain?" Ziva asked again. Then her eyes lit up. "You do not think…"

"Think what?" Tony wanted to know.

"You know, maybe you are going to get a brother in law?"

Tony made a face. No, Maggie wouldn't be getting married without telling him. Would she?

No one dared ask Gibbs any questions when he came back. Ziva gave him the message about the Chaplain calling. Gibbs thanked her and spent the rest of the day in MTAC.

"You don't believe in tradition do you?" Gibbs asked Maggie from the hallway through their closed bedroom door.

"No, but I would like to at least surprise you." Came her answer through the door.

"The Chaplain will be here in 15 minutes." He told her.

"And I'll be down in 14 minutes. Now let me finish getting ready."

Gibbs finished buttoning his white shirt he'd picked up from the cleaners earlier in the morning along with his dark grey suit. The ceremony was going to be simple and then he'd planned a romantic dinner for them after.

Maggie found a pale grey lace dress with a violet belt. It was fancy enough to be a wedding dress without being an actual wedding dress. She wore Tony's mother's pearl necklace and bracelet and her own mother's diamond studs. She heard the doorbell ring and assumed it was Jamie. He'd agreed to give Maggie away, be Gibbs' best man and the witness. He was bringing a date too he'd told them when he'd called the night before.

"Maggie, I think you want to come down and meet Jamie's date." Gibbs called from downstairs. She couldn't believe he actually yelled that.

"Gibbs." She said as she started down the stairs and stopped.

"Wow, you look amazing." Jackson Gibbs was standing between Jamie and Gibbs.

"Amazing is one word. You look hot Mom." Jamie told her.

"Hey, she's going to be my wife you know." Gibbs gave Jamie a gentler head slap than he would give to Tony.

"Yeah, well I'm going to be your step-son." Jamie countered.

"And I'm going to be your grandfather so stop sassing your Mom." Jackson told Jamie. "Go and get me water."

"How?" Maggie asked as Jackson gave her a hug.

"Jamie called me and told me what was going on." Jackson began to explain. "Now son, don't think I strong armed him. I've missed enough of your weddings, I'd be damned if I'd miss this one."

"We are going to be one big happy family." Maggie wrapped her arm around Gibbs waist. "What's one more witness?"

"Make that five more witnesses."

Tony appeared from the kitchen. "You can't keep a secret from your little brother."

"We managed all week." Gibbs told him.

"How did you find out?" Maggie wanted to know.

"I have my ways." Tony came over to Maggie and kissed her on her cheek.

"You mean McGee has his ways." Gibbs corrected.

"Boss, he pulled the seniority card and made me do it." McGee offered in his own defense.

"Besides, you need flowers." Abby walked into the room carrying a small bouquet of Maggie's favorite flowers. "And bridesmaids."

Ziva took out a boutonniere from a plastic box that matched Maggie's flowers and pinned it on Gibbs' lapel. "And the groom needs his too."

"The Chaplain is here." Ducky informed the party standing in the living room. "Shall we get the show on the road?"

Two hours later Maggie stood on the back porch looking down at the people in the patio. Several boxes of pizza were on the table in the middle of the patio. The wedding party drank wine and beer and shared stories with each other. Maggie felt Gibbs' arms slide around her waist from behind. His lips grazed the side of her neck.

"What do you think of your big happy family now?" he asked her. "Bit of a surprise isn't it?"

"I like surprises." She told him. "Like the kind I find in the bathroom aisle at Lowe's."

"I think it's time we let the newlyweds have some privacy." Ducky said as he looked up and saw Maggie and Gibbs on the top stair.

Goodnights were said as everyone left. Gibbs let Freckles out for her nightly bathroom break while Maggie rinsed out the wine glasses in the sink. Gibbs came back in, gave Freckles a treat and told her to go to bed.

"You were talking to me or the dog?" Maggie asked flirtatiously from the sink.

Gibbs walked over to his wife and pulled her into him. He kissed her slowly, taking his time going from her top to her bottom lip before moving to run his tongue down her neck.

"Watch it buddy, kiss me like that and you better be prepared to take your clothes off." She warned him.

"Oh I plan on taking mine off." He nipped at one side of her neck. "Then mine." He nipped the other side of her neck and stopped.

Maggie was just about panting waiting for him to say what he was going to do next.

"And then?" she finally asked.

"Then we are going to make use of that shower I helped you fix."

The End?


End file.
